I placed my hands up in the air like the young lady asked me to. “You must be Josuke’s partner in crime, Pan Pikoros. Am I right?”
Her red lips curled up into a dissatisfied smirk. “Yes. I am. And you must be the nosy little girl detective that’s been making life hard for me.”
“You made life hard for yourself the moment you decided to take something that wasn’t yours,” I fired back.
“Shut up, you stupid little human!” Pan shifted her arm a little bit to the right and she pulled the trigger to her ray gun. A brilliant white-hot light zipped past me; it just missed my right ear. I looked behind me; there was now a small smoking black hole in the wall. My shoulders started to shake a bit; if I had moved over to the right just then, that could have been me with a burnt, blasted-off body part. “Good. I’m glad that I have your attention, little Miss Detective.” Pan pointed her ray gun toward the couch. “You are my ticket out of here. But first, I need you to take care of some things for me before we leave. Pull that couch back and hurry!”
I nervously tiptoed toward the couch. I prayed that my shoe wouldn’t get caught up in any of the trash on the way there. As I pulled the couch back, I noticed how the bottom right-hand corner of the carpet was no longer attached to the wall. I carefully avoided the thick black nails that were hanging from the carpet as I pulled it back. Hiding behind the gigantic thick carpet was a small door.
“Go inside,” Pan barked. I opened the door, which, to my surprise, led to the inside of a cubbyhole. The cubbyhole was just big enough for one person. The floor was covered in trash, mostly empty junk food wrappers and soda cans. Two orange wigs, both long with puffy ponytails, were hanging from two black nails that were pushed into the wall. A black poodle skirt with a flute design and musical notes on it was laying on the floor underneath of the two orange wigs. “In the left corner underneath the pile of trash is a black lockbox. Bring that out with you.”
I brushed a pile of trash away; it was a bunch of empty Jaded Jade eyeshadow containers and some Barely There Beige concealer. The lockbox that Pan wanted was sitting beneath all of that. My heart started to race just a bit; there was no doubt in my mind that The Rings of Saturn were in this box. My previous hunch was correct; the rings were stashed here behind this carpet! On the front of the lockbox was a combination pad. After I shuffled out of the cubbyhole with the black lockbox tucked under my arm, Pan snatched it away from me. She punched four numbers onto the combination pad and the top to the lockbox popped open. Pan reached in and pulled out one of The Rings of Saturn, twirling the golden ring around her index finger. Pan kept her eyes fixed on the countless gems that covered the ring; it was as if the gems had cast a hypnotic spell on her. “By the Goddess, they’re so beautiful. I can’t believe they’re all mine.” She let out a small sigh. “If only I could get back that one ring from Hayate that I dropped in the hallway.” I knew from the get go that Mr. Hayate was lying about “finding” one of the rings in Mimia’s house. It just didn’t make any sense that he found only one ring and not the rest. So I was right. He took that one ring that he found in the hallway and he planted it in Mimias house to frame her. Pan dropped the ring back into the lockbox. “Do you see those cans of Stick and Stay hairspray? Pick them up and start spraying this ugly-looking carpet and spray the trash near it as well. Put some of the empty cans on top of the pile. And hurry!” I quickly gathered up as much trash as I could underneath the carpet on the wall. I picked up two full cans of Stick and Stay hairspray and I coated the far right side of the carpet with as much as possible. Every few seconds, I would nervously glance over my shoulder to look at Pan to make sure she wasn’t going to shoot me in the back.
“Alright, that’s enough; move out of the way,” Pan screamed. When I dropped the two cans onto the ground, I noticed the warning label on the back, saying the hairspray was an excellent product for keeping your hair in place but it was also highly flammable. She must be trying to cover her tracks by setting the house on fire! After I took five steps back from the carpet, Pan shot the bottom half of the carpet that was covered in hairspray. The carpet immediately caught on fire and the flames started to eat away at the beautiful image of the Martian woman who was looking toward the future. Several loud pops emerged from the base of the carpet as the fire consumed the white video phone. Josuke’s private line—that must have been the phone that Pan used to call me earlier.
“A nice little parting gift for my beloved Jo,” Pan said with a hint of sarcasm. She pointed her ray gun toward the steps. “Move it or else I’ll leave you down here!” By the time the both of us reached the top of the stairs, a thin cloud of smoke was hovering over the top of our heads.
“Wait!” I screamed before we headed through the door. Pan pointed her ray gun at me, her face twisted into a nasty snarl. “There is a woman who cleans for them. Is she still in this house?”
Pan dragged me through the front door. “Oh, she’s still here. I tied her up and left her on the kitchen floor. I figured between having to put that fire out and rescuing the help that would give us enough time to jump into one of the escape pods and safely make our little trip to Princess Rhea’s ship.” Pan chuckled to herself, slipped her ray gun underneath the lockbox, and covered it up with her hand as we walked down the street together. “You know, I have you to thank for giving me the idea of using the escape pod as a means to get off of this ship. Then again, I’m pretty thankful that my beloved Jo is such a motor mouth. He told me everything about you and what you were doing. When he told me that you were the princess’s ‘ambassador,’ whatever that means, and that you had been on her ship, I knew right then that you were my ticket out of here!”
“How did you know that I was coming to the house?”
Pan snorted. “That Jo. He’s so stupid! Giving his scooter to Kazuma, sitting on the couch right in front of my hiding spot! He did so much stupid stuff. I knew that after you took him upstairs, it was only a matter of time before he would give you my name. And I knew either you would come alone or you would send some people to the house beforehand like you did to that girl, Phoebe. Regardless, no matter which scenario was going to come my way, I was going to take you as my hostage.” Behind me, I could hear people yelling about the smoke that was coming from out of Mr. Hayate’s house, and people were rushing out of their homes to see what was going on; absolutely no one was paying attention to me or Pan as we walked beside each other away from the house. “No sudden movements; don’t scream. If you do, I’ll shoot you.” Pan’s voice was cold and devoid of sympathy. She meant exactly what she said. Off in the distance, I noticed a flashing neon-colored sign that said “emergency escape.” Pan grabbed me by my arm. “Hurry up; we need to get out of here.” We picked up our pace and reached the emergency exit door in no time at all; we quickly slipped through the door undetected. Before the door closed behind me, I peeked over my shoulder at the large group of people who had gathered around Mr. Hayate’s house. I hoped that Kari was okay and that she would make it out of there alive.
Poking out of the back of the wall were the ship’s escape pods; there were far too many of them to count and they were in much better condition than the flimsy ones I had seen in the Martian employee section. Pan shoved the end of her ray gun into my back. “Open the door, head inside, and don’t move until I get in!”
I easily pulled the door open to the escape pod; a calm, soothing voice came from out of the speakers in the escape pod. “Welcome. Please enter in an orderly fashion and take your seats.”
Pan let out a soft whistle as she came through the door. “Oh, this is really fancy. Heck, this is better than that disgusting shack I was living in underneath this ship!” I rubbed my fingers across the padding that was on the chair next to me; it was made out of velvet. I felt like I was touching a cloud. Pan shoved me toward the front of the escape pod. “You get the honor of driving us over there. Just know that I have this gun pointed at the back of your chair. So don’t try anything.”
With my stomach tied in three knots, I sat down in the driver’s seat. Two soft velvet seat belts emerged from the side of my chair. They crisscrossed over my chest and then snapped into place above my shoulders. Just like the escape pod I used earlier, the keys were sitting in the glove compartment next to the steering wheel. In the back of my mind, I said a little prayer for my own safety as I turned the key in the ignition and drove toward Princess Rhea’s ship with Pan sitting behind me, a gun pointed at my back.
Princess Rhea’s ship immediately picked up on the escape pod’s signal. Thankfully, this time around, I faced no hostilities and my call was sent straight to Pallene. I told her that I had some important information to give the princess about the missing Rings of Saturn and that it was so important that I needed to talk to her personally. Pallene told me the princess’s guards would meet me at the bottom of the ship and escort me to the princess’s banquet room. I didn’t like this at all. Pan was too unpredictable, and I had no idea what she wanted to do. I parked the escape pod underneath Princess Rhea’s ship. With my hands clasped onto the steering wheel, I waited for the hatch underneath the ship to open up.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” I whispered.
“Says the little girl who played detective and is now in over her head.” She laughed.
“Ya know, it took me a few seconds to figure out that you were the culprit. Do you know what gave you away? Your hair. You used too much Stick and Stay hairspray on your hair. That’s what caused your hair to stick to the inside of Josuke’s bike.” I let out a little chuckle. “Pan the trickster. You were able to trick everyone but me.”
Pan took off her seat belt and dashed toward me with her ray gun pointed at me. “Shut up! And when we get off of this thing, I’m going to do all of the talking.” The hatch underneath the ship opened up. I guided the escape pod through the entrance. After the hatch closed under the ship, Pallene and two of the princess’s assistants made their way toward the escape pod. I wished there were some way that I could warn them about Pan without putting my own life in danger.
The door to the escape pod swung open. “Cosmo, it’s good to…” Pallene’s voiced trailed off into a tiny whisper the moment she laid eyes on Pan and me.
Pan pulled me up from out of my chair and pressed the end of her ray gun against my cheek. “Oh, come now, ladies, don’t frown. We have to put on our best smiles since we’re going to see the princess!”
Pan, pressing her ray gun to my cheek, made the walk from the ship’s belly to the dining hall where the princess was waiting for us one of the tensest moments of my life. As we passed the ship’s guards, I could feel their desire to protect the princess from Pan radiating out of their pores. I knew that they wanted to do something, but if they did, chances were that Pan would shoot my jaw off. As the four of us walked into the dining hall together, Princess Rhea greeted us with a smile; she was so poised and relaxed. You would have thought that she had invited us over for an afternoon of tea and macaroons.
“Oh, Your Majesty, it’s so good to finally meet you!” Pan said jokingly while giving a curtsy.
“It’s good to meet you as well, my dear. Please, why don’t you have a seat? I can have one of my ladies bring you some black wine, if you’d like.”
Pan placed her hand over her chest and she tossed her head to the side. “Oh, Your Majesty, you’re just too kind!”
Princess Rhea pulled out a seat for Pan right next to her; one of the princess’s assistants placed a golden goblet in front of Pan and she poured some black wine into it. Pan brought the goblet to her lips; she threw her head back and, after taking three large gulps, she sat the goblet back down on the table.
“Can you tell me your name please?” Princess Rhea asked.
“Well, it’s funny you should ask that. When I turned eighteen, I changed my name to Pan. I loved my first name until I heard about my great-grandmother’s tragic backstory. My real name is Janus. Janus Pikoros, Your Excellency.” This was insane! Pan wasn’t even her real name! This couldn’t be real! “My mother named me after my great-grandmother Pikiria Janus Pikoros. Maybe you’ve heard of her. She had the opportunity to become the queen of Planet X stolen from her by your lying, manipulative grandmother!”
Pallene stepped forward. “Watch your tongue!” she hissed. Janus tossed the heavy goblet at Pallene; what little bit of wine that was left in the goblet landed on her ivory-colored dress.
Princess Rhea gently placed her hand on Janus’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry she said that. Would you like another cup of wine?”
Janus dragged her fingernails over her cheek; little green flakes fell from the right side of her face. God, this was scary. Who was this woman with two names?
“What I want is the life that I should have had! The life that I could have had if my grandmother had the chance to become queen.” Janus pulled a long string of green crust off of her face; a patch of red skin appeared where her flaky skin used to be. “It was your grandmother who spread those lies about my grandmother. She convinced everyone that my grandmother was saying all sorts of things about the prince, which caused her to be thrown out of court and her engagement to the prince abruptly ended.” Janus scratched off more of her flaky skin; the entire right side of her face was a fearsome sight to behold. Patches of dried green skin dangled off of her cheekbone and red bloody blotches peeked through to the surface. “Every morning, I get up and I mix together this expensive concealer with green eyeshadow to help cover up the scars on my face.” Janus traced her finger along the edge of a dry patch of skin on her cheek. “When I was a little girl, I had no choice but to let people see the scars that I was born with. Sometimes, I used to think about the story of my great-grandmother and I used to imagine the type of life I could have had if she were queen. If she were queen, I could have servants paint my face every morning and no one would ever laugh at me. So when I heard that you were coming to the Titan, this idea came to me. How wonderful would it be for me, Janus Pikoros, to steal The Rings of Saturn from you, Her Royal Highness and third in line to the throne.” As Janus laughed to herself, the dangling pieces of dry skin on her face shook from side to side.
“You’ve ruined everything that the princess has tried to accomplish with your selfish desires!” Pallene yelled with tears running down her face.
“I ruined what she was trying to accomplish! Ha!” Janus turned toward me and a few flakes of skin dropped to the floor. “We’ve shared everything with them! When they were hungry and dying by the hundreds when they were fighting over the Moon, who showed them how to survive? Who showed them how to grow their food and build their colonies! We did!” Janus slammed her fist down on the table. “We shared our culture and knowledge and what did we get in return? They pushed us away from our homes all the way to the edge of space. Now we can’t even sit in the same restaurants that they do. There’s nothing you can do to help them understand. Just what can you share with those who already have so much power and can take anything from those who are powerless? Nothing.”
The princess continued to hold on to her composure. She placed her hand on top of Janus’s. “I’m so sorry about everything. Tell me, as your princess, what can I do for you?”
Janus pushed the princess’s hand away. She leaned in close with the right side of her face toward the princess. “What can you do for me? I want you to remember me. Give me the fastest rocket you have on this ship. I want you to leave me and my little friend here alone. If you try to follow us or send anyone after us, I will shoot her. That’s what you can do for me.”
There was no way I was going to let Janus take me off of this ship. Who knew what she might do to me? For all I knew, she might shoot me the moment we took off. I had to do something right now or else. I started to run a million different scenarios through my mind on how I could escape, but none of them would work unless I could get her loosen her grip on that ray gun of hers, which she still had pressed into my arm. I was standing to the left of her. A few crusty sprinkles from her dried skin were lying on the table in front of me. As I looked down at the tiny fragments of dried skin, an idea came to me; it was very simple, yet I would be totally dependent upon Janus agreeing with me in order for the plan to be set in motion. I took all of my energy and channeled it into my legs. I quietly shifted over to Janus’s left side, and she began to poke me in the arm with the end of her ray gun. “No one told you to move!” So far, so good. I was standing right next to her.
“Your Highness, don’t you think you should give your guest some warm water to wash her face with?”
Janus ran her fingers across her right cheek. “Some warm water and a wash rag would be nice.”
Princess Rhea snapped her fingers. “Pallene, bring our guest a bowl with some warm water and a clean towel to wash her face with.” Pallene scurried out of the room with the other two attendants tailing behind her. Good, Janus agreed to have her face washed. I thought my plan was going to work.
“Tell me, Janus, what do you plan to do with The Rings of Saturn?” the princess asked in a very casual manner. She spoke to her as if she and Janus were the best of friends.
“Oh, I’ll sell them, of course, and with the money I earn from selling them, I can restore my family’s name. Once again, the name Pikoros will be known all through the high courts and among all of the distinguished dignitaries.”
Pallene came back into the dining hall alone; she was carrying a wide golden bowl that had two handles on the side and a white cloth was hanging from the side of the bowl. Long white wisps of steam danced around Pallene’s face. Good, the water she was carrying was boiling hot. I clenched and unclenched my right hand. This was it; this was probably going to be the only chance I had to escape from Janus. I had to do this.
“Put the bowl down here on the table and make it snappy!” Janus barked. Pallene’s hands shook like a leaf as she placed herself between the princess and Janus; some of the warm water fell onto the floor. I kept my eyes on the steamy hot bubbly water and I tried to keep my right hand still so I wouldn’t give my intentions away. Finally, Pallene stretched her arms out so she could place the hot bowl onto the table. Right as Pallene’s arms crossed Janus’s face, I swung my right hand up against the bottom of the golden bowl. The scalding hot water crashed down on Janus’s face. She let out a high-pitched scream as the boiling hot water pushed the rest of her dried skin down toward her neck. Janus’s fingertips curled toward the palm of her hand and I quickly slipped her silver ray gun from out of her loose grasp and into my own hands.
“Guards, guards, seize her!” Pallene cried out. About a dozen or so guards busted through the door and into the dining hall. Two burly looking guards grabbed Janus up by her arms; she was still crying out in agony with her hands pressed to her face before she disappeared behind the door.