The Last Empress of Mars

man’s American passport was there on the floor, probably tossed about during this frenzied search. Opening it up, Niko read the name as he snapped a picture. Daniel Walker, born in Oklahoma City on the 13th of May 1950. An unlucky Taurus, this one was. This gentleman´s face seemed very familiar, but he could not place it right then and there, although the name did not ring any bells. He would have to do an Internet search to see if this was someone well known and check on Interpol just in case this was a wanted man. It was amazing nowadays what a simple and quick Internet search could turn up right away. Maybe that search could shed some light on what this victim might have had in his possession that someone wanted so badly. Of course, there was always the remote possibility that it was something the girl had, that the killer or killers were after, but the odds were in favor of the man being the one they were targeting since it would have been easier to get to the girl in a less public place. Looking at her Cedula (national ID card) there was nothing unusual, she seemed to be just another chica looking to make some fast bucks from a tourist. Prostitution was legal as long as you were over 18 and most of these girls were supporting one or more children and probably one or two parents to boot and some even had a lazy, young boyfriend who was always in need of money. Many of the girls did this out of necessity and most had few other marketable skills and certainly none that would pay as much, at least when business was good; although, for the last couple of years business had been slightly down as the influx of tourists had dwindled somewhat due to the economic crisis but it was apparently starting to steadily pick back up again. Still, there would be 3 or 4 girls chasing each tourist and his Franklins. This chica, was a fairly young one, born November 3rd, 2001, according to her Cedula, she was just twenty-two, but Hilda Martinez would never see her twenty-third birthday and looking at the baby picture in her wallet, there was at least one orphaned child who would never see or be held in the loving arms of his mother again. Niko was not an overly sensitive guy, particularly in this line of duty, where one would see death often enough that it lost its shock value, but orphans were his Achilles heel, and seeing this young mother sliced to death pushed all his buttons. Right then and there, he was determined to