He’d waited a long time to finally have the chance to touch her, spent years in the background watching and observing from afar. Now that she was his, he got what he’d been watching over for the past few years. He’d previously had to hide in the background, to curb his lustful thoughts for her, but now things had changed. Before leaving the room he promised himself he would come back to have his way with her again.
Hastily he moved back to the cave in search of Fahwad but found it empty, so retreated quickly, back tracking to the main floor. Still with no sign of anyone he moved on up to the office, hopeful to find Fahwad or Samuel.
Opening the door to the office, he saw Samuel asleep at the desk and kicked out at him violently. “Samuel!”
“Huh? Sousa?”
“Ja, it’s me, ja.”
“Where the hell did you go?”
“Nowhere. What happened?”
“You just disappeared! You just left to me …”
“How is he?” Sousa ignored his protestations.
“Well, I don’t know actually. But thanks for letting me drag him all the way back up here.”
“How’d you do that hey?”
“You think you’re the only one?”
“Only one what?”
“Oh, not very bright are you Sousa? I meant the only one he gave power to.”
“Meh,” he ignored it. “So nothing?”
“No,” Samuel shook his head. “It won’t be much longer I suspect, although Fahwad didn’t say anything about how long it would take.”
“And if it is longer?”
“We wait. That’s what he told us to do.”
“Ja,” Sousa haphazardly agreed, looking back over the operations floor of Destiny. “Lot of people dead hey?”
“I can only imagine what’s happening out there in the world.”
“How many people died this time do you think?”
“No idea, everyone in here seems to be gone though, going to need to find some more helpers now. But from what Fahwad says, maybe there isn’t any left,” he mused, stretching out in the office chair he was seated on.
“For what, what’s next huh?”
“Next thread I guess, there are more you know.”
“And then I get what I deserve?”
“Fahwad lives up to his promises Sousa, so don’t worry. He’ll get the other threads, you’ll get what he promised.”
“I wasn’t thinking about that,” he defended himself.
“Yes you were. It’s why you’re here, so don’t worry.”
“What do we do now then?”
“Let’s clean this place up, all those bodies are a terrible sight.”
The two moved down the stairs and together began collecting bodies, piling them in a neat stack at the foot of the stairs. Samuel counted forty-three in total and the two of them were almost done when from the hallway three men approached.
A tall blonde, a man with glasses and a big bear of a man.
“Samuel,” Sousa whispered out of the corner of his mouth, his eyes set on the three men as they approached casually. “Samuel?”
Samuel had his back to Sousa and hadn’t noticed the men approach, he replied with a casual “What?” until he realised what Sousa had seen, a perceptible “Urgh” came from his mouth in surprise.
The first man Sousa recognised was the pretty boy Yonas and the second as the big guy who’d smashed his skull in. The third man though was new to Sousa, he too was tall like the others but wore glasses.
“Where is he?” Iegar was the first to speak as the three men came into the operations room, opposite Samuel and Sousa.
“I’m right here boy,” Sousa replied. “You want me don’t you?”
“I’m not looking for you little man.”
“Ja, well, here I am though hey.”
“Oh, don’t be so sure of yourself little man. Last time did not go so well for you.” Iegar stared him down.
“Yeah, shouldn’t you be dead?” Yonas chimed in.
“I have a friend who helped me.” Sousa smiled knowingly, standing at full height.
“Fahwad,” Iegar and Yonas both said, rolling their eyes.
“And who saved your little asses then hey? I shot you in the chest and you …” Sousa pointed at Yonas, “I took your bloody head clean off man.”
“Say what now?” the man with glasses asked, confused at the exchange.
“Don’t worry, this guy’s nothing to worry about, if someone saved him it must’ve been Fahwad.”
“Ha!” Sousa mocked them. “No, it was your friend Smith who saved me!”
During the exchange, Samuel backed slowly away from the group, retreating up the staircase towards the office.
“Smith? Why would he want to bring you back, you are nothing?” Iegar leered at him.
“He told me that I was the key.” Sousa boasted proudly.
“You have the Smith?” Yonas asked.
“Yeah and I also have this!” Sousa quickly pulled a revolver he’d stashed behind his back, firing a quick succession of bullets at the three intruders as he moved. Sousa was an expert marksman and all his shots hit the targets he intended, although they didn’t achieve the results he wanted.
Of the three, only the new guy with glasses moved. He dropped on one knee to the floor but the other two remained unaffected, except for the impact the bullets had caused. After a moment though, the third guy stood back up, leering at Sousa as he did so.
“Where is he?” Iegar asked again.
Sousa looked at his gun and then back at the three men, clearly they weren’t what he expected and he looked about him for solutions. Sousa was a soldier and a fighter and no matter what he would never back away from a fight.
“Worked last time.” He muttered.
“Last time there wasn’t three of us.”
Sousa thought of the spears they’d used in their previous encounter and tried to recall where he’d placed them. He cursed himself as he realised they were back down the hallway and the three men were blocking his path to it.
“Fahwad isn’t here, maybe he’ll come back later and kick your arse.” He tucked the revolver back into his fatigues.
“I told you once to stay back and you didn’t listen. Maybe you should this time.” Iegar warned. “If Smith wants you that’s his business, but stay away from us.”
“Ja, whatever hey,” he replied, breaking into a trot as he charged towards them suddenly from across the operations floor.
The three hadn’t expected him to charge and they instinctively took a step backwards in anticipation. Sousa came at them quickly, a head first charge directly at them. Right at the moment when a collision seemed inevitable, Sousa altered his direction, stepping to the side. The three followed him, quickly coming forward and adjusting their stance to meet his goose step.
It was what Sousa had wanted, once he saw that he’d brought their momentum forward, he sidestepped and changed direction again, throwing their balance off as he moved clear past them. Sousa laughed as they fell for his trick and continued his bolt onwards down the hall.
Standing there dumbfounded, the three men looked at each other with frustration, annoyed that Sousa had gotten past three of them. Iegar flicked his eyes in the direction of Sousa but Yonas stepped in quickly. “I’ll get the dimwit,” he smiled, with a flick of his hair.
“Make it quick then, I may need help with this bugger Fahwad.” Iegar responded, moving towards the stairs with the new guy, Enoch.
“Two against one? You guys will be fine,” Yonas smiled, leaving them and giving chase to the fleeing figure of Sousa.
Sousa had enough of a lead on Yonas to reach the armoury where the spears had been stashed. Once he found them he quickly grabbed a hold of one, turned and made for the hallway again.
He was m
et there by the oncoming figure of Yonas, who approached him as casually as a Sunday morning walk on the beach. The two stood opposite each other, facing off like a couple of bulls about to do battle.
“I’m going to cut your pretty little face first.” Sousa waved the spear in front of him.
“Well that would be a terrible shame wouldn’t it, might not have as much luck with the ladies then,” he smiled confidently back at Sousa, hands held behind his back.
“Then I’m going to shove this thing right up your arse, where it belongs.”
“Not my cup of tea I’m afraid,” he replied, still smiling. “Perhaps you should consider shoving it up your own arse?”
“Come at me boy!” Sousa taunted.
“Me, well … I’m happy just to block your path for the moment,” he replied, standing in the middle of the hallway. “But if you want to, come at me … boy!”
Sousa moved forward warily, but with a confident stance. He had the spear held high and pointed at Yonas’ face with both hands, waving it side to side as he came forward. He was more than confident considering Yonas was completely unarmed and hadn’t even raised his hands in defence.
Sousa faked first to the left and then to the right, testing out Yonas’ resolve. But to his surprise none of what he did caused Yonas to react, he just stood there, much in the same manner that Sousa would’ve expected Smith to act.
Yonas just stood calmly, as if waiting for his moment. As Sousa danced around in front of him he began to wonder if Yonas was going to fight back at all. He decided to give his theory a little test, dropping the point of the spear right to Yonas’ stomach.
It was only the tip, but was enough to draw blood from Yonas’ stomach. But still no reaction came, Yonas remained still and stood calmly with a smile on his face, staring Sousa in the eye, almost nonchalantly.
“You can’t hurt me.” He laughed.
It gave Sousa a false confidence, as he assumed that Yonas meant not to engage, just like Smith. He made the decision to attack and drew his arms backwards again, lining up to land a stroke right into the centre of Yonas’ chest.
He couldn’t believe his luck as drove forward, past the point of no return. Yonas didn’t even bat an eyelid as the spear bore down upon him. Sousa’s eyes flared wide in anticipation of the blow until right at the last minute, when all but the inevitable seemed likely, Yonas turned sideways.
He moved so quickly that Sousa could do nothing about it, already committed, he ploughed past Yonas, his momentum driving him forward through the empty space.
Yonas kept spinning in his stance and caught the butt of the spear in his hand as Sousa sailed past, twisting it and collecting the weapon from Sousa’s easily. He twirled the spear expertly in his hands, getting the grip he wanted low on the spear and swinging it backwards at full stretch, by the hilt, in Sousa’s direction. The spear flew at incredible speed, Yonas’ arm played out at full extension.
The tip of the spear collected Sousa to the side of the head and, added to the momentum he had already built up, it sent him cascading sideways into the wall. Two knocks to the head in quick succession and Sousa was out cold.
Yonas spun the spear quickly in his hands, bringing it to a halt under his armpit. “I guess I get to stay pretty then,” he mockingly added, “hey!”
Sousa woke on the floor with a pounding headache. Blood covered both sides of his face as he rose and he quickly used his shirt to wipe his face and clear his vision. Getting to his feet he felt the dizziness stir and knew he had a concussion, he staggered towards the medical bay.
“Catlin?” he called. “Catlin are you in here?”
The room was empty.
He stumbled around, finding some bandages and using them to wipe the remaining blood from his face. He spat and cursed as he did so, annoyed that he’d been bested in battle. He felt especially annoyed that it had been at the hands of the pompous prick Yonas.
Finding the sink Sousa relished the cold water of the tap as it cascaded over him, washing the blood from his face and hair. He noticed he had two wounds, on both sides of his head and quickly covered them up with some gauze pads nearby.
Satisfied he’d cleaned himself up enough, he thought next of a weapon and returned to the armoury to collect another spear, determined to win this time, determined to not be lured falsely into attacking as he had before. Concussion aside, he still felt strength inside himself.
But as he reached the operations floor of Destiny he knew something was amiss, for it was far too quiet. With only one place on his mind Sousa cautiously made his way towards the staircase, carefully placing his feet as he went, so as not to alert anyone.
The door to Samuel’s office was closed but ajar, so he carefully prodded it open with the spear. Once it began to swing open he reared back into attack mode, ready to strike at whatever was in there.
Samuel looked up at him from behind the desk, his head rising from taking another slumber it seemed. To Sousa’s surprise, on the couch three men were piled on top of each other, none of them moving.
One had a large red axe buried in his head.
The bodies were still and sagging and Sousa knew instantly they were dead. He noticed the pretty one with a spear in his chest and smiled as he realised he must’ve been impaled with the very spear he took from Sousa.
“Samuel, you ole bastard, you do this?”
“No,” he quickly replied.
Sousa also noticed that a laptop, the black device and a series of cables lay on the floor next to the couch. Seeing them all, he knew exactly what’d taken place whilst he’d been comatose.
“Fahwad woke up didn’t he?”
“Only for long enough to stop those two,” Samuel recalled. “Fahwad was awake just as I came back up the stairs. He told me to bring them in and tell them he was in the coffin. He hid behind the door with the axe and when they came in …”
“The big guy went down easy then?”
“They both went down easy, he caught them both by surprise.“
“Cheeky bugger!”
“The power with which he dealt with them Sousa … was a marvel. He took out the first two with lightning speed, I could barely even see. Absorbing the thread earlier made him far superior, they stood no chance against him.”
“And him?” Sousa wacked the body of Yonas.
“The pretty one came after, he put up more of a fight, but Fahwad had more strength, more power, more speed. He eventually took the spear Yonas carried and impaled him on it.”
“Well, I am impressed.”
“He defeated them all. I told you Sousa, Fahwad is a God.”
“And then he took their power?” Sousa fumbled the cords on the ground with his foot.
“Once he subdued them, yes, he took their power.”
“What? He absorbed the power from all three of them?”
“Yes.”
“Dammit!”
“It was all very quick Sousa. We originally planned to do this over a much longer time, slowly uncovering threads and absorbing them as we found them. We certainly didn’t expect to find one here, let alone for three more of them to walk in the door. This is truly amazing.”
“Ja, whatever. Four bloody threads then, dammit!”
“Yes.”
“He’s got the power of four inside him then hey?”
“Yes, now that is some power right?”
“So, there are no more threads left?”
“Apparently there are seven, but we don’t know where the rest are.”
“Where is he? In there?” Sousa asked, pointing to the desk.
“Yes, he’s back in there now,” Samuel tapped on the coffin.
“That cheeky, bloody bastard!” he swore.
Samuel seemed taken aback. “I’m sorry?”
“He promised me.”
“F
ahwad he ...”
“Shut up!” Sousa pointed the spear in his hand at Samuel. “Just shut your damn mouth.”
“Sit down and calm down would you.”
“Dammit. How long have I been out of it?”
“Not long, half an hour maybe,” he replied, looking at his watch and noticing the time. “Like I said Sousa, it all happened very quickly.”
“So what, he absorbed the power of these shitheads then? He took all their powers for himself?”
“Yes.”
“Traitor!” Sousa blurted out, banging the spear on the coffin.
“Hey!” Samuel scolded. “Stop that!”
“Shut up you bloody weasel.” Sousa pointed the spear at Samuel accusingly and promptly kicked the coffin. “You lied to me asshole.”
“Hey,” Samuel waved a finger at him. “Get that thing outta my face.”
“Shut up!” he shouted, spear still pointed at Samuel but his boot kicking the coffin, “We had a deal Fahwad!” He kicked the coffin again.
“Sousa, you can’t kick the coffin, Fahwad will be furious, stop it.”
But Sousa was uncompromising and he whacked Samuel’s finger away with the tip of the spear, Samuel recoiled angrily and stood from his chair to react but Sousa was too fast for him. He thrust the spear forward and planted the tip of the spear right at his chest, pausing only momentarily with a glint in his eye before he drove the point of the spear deep into Samuel’s chest.
The air was sucked from Samuel’s lungs as the spear entered his chest cavity, he tried to breathe but could only cough, spurts of blood coming up with phlegm as he did so. The look in his eye was of abject shock and horror, he had not expected this.
“Nobody tells me what to do, hey!”
A few coughs from Samuel and his body sagged forward in the chair. Sousa pulled angrily at his spear, tearing it free from Samuel’s chest, “I damn well told you!” he pointed at him. “You don’t mess with the Viper!”
Recalling Destiny Page 72