by Sam Sea
‘Like they all know, like they could feel us, like they can sense we are on the hunt.’ Irkoniss thought.
Even though the river ran fast, they still rowed in a steady rhythm. Irkoniss never went this far away from his village, but he knew that the river ran only so long and that they were closing on the sea. Even the air became warmer, and the smell and the presence of the salt in the air played with his senses. But before they hit the delta, at the end of the second day, they pulled to the bank. His father stepped in the water and punched a hand long tare in the cones bottom. Then he pushed them both toward the middle of the river where they sunk in the murky water.
“I guess we’ll go back on foot,” his friend Leaf said, thinking how they will go back.
“Well, that’s the only way…the river is just too fast now to go upstream,” his father explained.
After rowing for two straight days, all Irkoniss’s whole body was sore. His hands seemed to be not fully under his command, and just trying to lift them up, caused a major ache. Also, no matter how much he stretched his legs in the canoe, he never dared to stand up like his father would, so suddenly just standing upright again felt very strange. So for a while, his legs didn’t care to listen to him either.
They set hidden in the bushes, waiting for the darkness to return, eating their dry salted meat. Irkoniss saw his friends’ fathers rubbing their arms and backs with some kind of a cream. He knew it was for the pain, and he wished his father didn’t run out to scout out the area. He wished he could feel better, but the most he got was a spoon-full of the cream Leaf dropped in his hand.
‘I guess I can do my own rubbing,’ he thought, trying to be all tough.
Then they placed their fingers in the charcoal powder one of their fathers bagged out, and ran them across their face, closing their eyes.
As the night started to settle in, his father suddenly returned, and they moved inside the forest again. They lighted no torches, and moved step at a time, often stopping, crouching down, listening. They moved on seeing the moons arise from the south and travel slowly across the sky.
As they got above their heads, they suddenly came in the clearance and saw distant lights, stronger than any fire light Irkoniss ever saw before.
“Sky people’s magic…” Leaf commented about those lights as they seem to impress him equally.
“They chopped all that forest?” But his father seemed completely unimpressed, and whispered with the hatred hissing as they lay in the cover of the trees looking over thousands, and thousands of tree stumps that lay in front of them.
“How could they chop it all off in one year’s time? Why would they do that? Why would they kill the forest? The land looks so shamed, so naked now…Have they no respect?”
Nobody cared to answer or offer any explanation.
Three blades, curved and long, were soon placed in front of them. Each had a different handle wrapped with the leather and a head of an animal on its end.
Irkoniss reached and picked the one closest to him. It had an eagle’s head. He ran his finger across it. Its cold iron was sharp enough that it could slice through the falling leaf.
“Remember, you can kill them anyway you can, but bring back their heads. And remember, only the heads of warriors will do, no heads of children or women or your shame will forever mud over your family honor.”
“If you do it quietly, if you do it the way you were taught, they will not even hear you…” continued Sono’s father.
“And if they do hear you, hope you die fast.” Irkoniss’s father added.
Later on, as years passed by and Irkoniss got a different perspective on things, he went back to that moment, and understood that the Hunt was not much of a hunt. It was a brutal assassination, all about a killing, and nothing to do with hunting. It was about proving that you can take other man’s life if that is what’s required, proving that you are ready to do whatever it takes if that is what is expected from you…The brutality of it shook him often when he stopped to think about and often when he closed his eyes and fruitlessly sought for a rest in sleep.
Twenty years later, Irkoniss stood in the darkness again, again with a long curved blade in his hand. Except that one didn’t have an eagle’s head handle, and its edge did not seem to be as cold or sharp.
The palace he entered a few minutes ago was supposed to be empty of people. He was sure. He knew that the bio/thermal scanner he used was working properly.
So, why did he then start to hear voices coming from above? Who were they and how could they be talking so much?
He knew that the stealth suite that he ‘borrowed’ from Mikka would make him almost invisible, but instinctively he hid anyway underneath the large wooden commode.
If he was just a bit quicker and ignored the voices when he heard them, he could have already been in the study…. it was only a few steps away. He could have already been home, job finished.
But patience was a virtue and the risk that did not need to be taken could not hurt him. At least that’s what he thought.
The contract said that two paintings decorating the study wall had to be retrieved. A piece of a cake for a master thief like himself. Fifty thousand credits that the job would give him would be enough to keep them all safe, at least for a year. At least for a year, Mikka wouldn’t have to go away.
Now, as he heard the slow footsteps of someone approaching, their voices becoming clearer, he wondered if he will be able to finish the job at all and if he is going to have to make the blade in his hand dance again. He needed the money from the job, wanted that money. So he decided to wait.
He knew that one of the things that would give him away is making a sound. So he just lay there, not even breathing, not even moving an eye-lash. And they passed right next to him.
“We cannot expect that the government will not find anything about this…” The words that one of them said attracted Irkoniss’s attention.
“Oh, come on! The emperor himself could not care less of what happens to-“
“You better not talk so loud. I know we are supposed to be here all alone, still you can never know…”
“You always worry too much…” the man said as he chuckled.
“I know… still..”
“You don’t need to worry at all about that, not here not now. I’ve installed a new type of anti-spying fence around all of the house. It’s one of the coolest things you ever saw. Nobody can zoom in on us, and it cancels out all the noise emitted from the house. Nobody can spy on us, not even the emperor himself.”
“Is it legal?”
“Well… I bet for some high government official it is…”
Men both laughed.
I guess that explains a lot - that’s why my thermal scanner didn’t pick anything out… Cool… They have a way to block it all out. I have to get my hands on that stuff. It could be worth a fortune down the line…
“Well, if you can get that to the Capital, it certainly would be worth quite a bit of credits.”
“The transportation right now is very tricky, very difficult,” the other man added after a while. “Ever since that transport was destroyed, they are going crazy over security. They are scanning everything now. I don’t think you could even import a needle without it being scanned first. Plus, almost nobody wants to fly in space… People are still scared. I am afraid it is going to stay like that until they really find out what had happened with that star ship.”
“Well, I heard rumors that there are people who do stuff, like smugglers… maybe you could use them?”
“Really? Smugglers?”
“I mean those are just rumors, but I hear there are people that have these old transporters which do not need to go through any space station at all. It is said that they just go straight from the planet to anywhere in the empire…So I hear.”
“Those are only rumors… They still need to go through wormhole gates. If such vessels do exist, they would detect them there. Besides, I’ve never seen any of them.
And even if it was true, and there are people like that, I would certainly not entrust my shipment to them. How can you trust a thief, a smuggler, a liar with something so precious?”
“Well, you do not need to tell them what they are transporting for once?”
“And you don’t think they could find it out on their own? Of course they could. And what if they find it valuable, more valuable than what you paid them. What then? Could they not just take it, and then what do you have?”
“Yes, you have a point there.”
“Anyway, we are getting ahead of ourselves…How much do you think the ‘stuff’ would be worth here in the Capital?”
“Probably fifteen million credits, at least.”
Fifteen million credits? What kind of stuff are they talking about? I want it. Whatever it is. I want it. Irkoniss brain waves went in overdrive. That could set us up until… until the end of time…
“Those kinds of things usually have a very good market. Now, I am only guessing, but if you want me to, I can look for placements and commitments on the black market right away, talk to some of my clients, and…I could probably even get some down deposits, and give you a final price.”
“Hum, that is interesting. I could use some credits right now, but I think I would rather wait. I think we can wait until I solve the transportation problem, and then we can start taking down deposits. That seems the smartest thing to do…And what would you consider to be a fair compensation for your troubles?”
“I’d be happy with the regular ten percent placement fee.”
“That sounds good to me too. So then, we have a deal,” the man said and the liquid, bubbly by the sound of it, could be heard being poured into the glasses.
“Yes we do…We have a deal,” the other man answered with joy as he could not hide the satisfaction knitted inside his voice.
Irkoniss then thought he heard the sound of glass clinking as if they were cementing and celebrating their agreement with a drink toast.
But, the toast it was not for one of them screamed “Oh, dear Lord!!”
Then he heard something heavy hitting the floor. He moved just a tiny bit, just to see what it was. But the partially opened door didn’t let his stare in.
“Oh, my Lord!!!” The man screamed again. “Are you… you dead?” the man asked with trembling voice, but got no answers. Irkoniss moved some more, and saw a body laying on the floor.
Then the man standing above it, with a hurried step that almost broke into a run, left the study and trotted right next to Irkoniss. He could only see fancy black shoes partially covered by the long white dress-up pants made of Siliian silk.
The man hurried out of the house through the main door leaving Irkoniss behind to wonder what to do next. He thought about chasing after the man and checking out if his knife skills could get the fifteen million information out of him. It could be worth it. The man seemed easy to scare.
I bet I would not even need to slice him open to get to all the truth. But then, he waited for a second and could already hear zooming of a personal transporter lifting off and making it to the skies.
I better get out of here…Maybe the guy is really dead. But then he also thought about fifty thousand credits which were waiting for him in the other room, and how that would make Silent and Mikka happy.
Maybe I have a few minutes before the police comes.
Cautiously he entered the study. Two thin and tall crystal glasses were placed on the round table, both half full of a golden liquid that was never drank.
He then saw a body, laying facedown, with hands unnaturally folded. A pond of blood under it was steadily growing bigger. He didn’t need to turn it around to know that man’s life went out with it.
So much power, so much money and influence, and still dead… But how? Irkoniss thought and then saw a small hole in the window toward the dead man’s back.
A shot! Instinctively he ducked down, then realized that the other man walked away, that the dead man was the only target. He ran to the window, but outside he could see nothing than a peaceful late Capital’s night.
I better hurry…Police can detect flying bullets, and in this rich man’s neighborhood, I should be surprised they are not here already.
Irkoniss looked at the wall where three similarly looking paintings were hanging, all portraying different models of ancient spaceships that had not been seen in centuries. They all looked almost the same to him, done with a dark, charcoal pencil. He could not remember which two was he contracted to snatch, so he picked all three of them, placing one on top of another, and raced out of the house as fast as his legs would carry him.
Chapter 2 - Mikka’s Wrath
Less than two hours later, Irkoniss was back to his apartment. It was a small place, located in the old part of the planet where buildings stretched up and scratched the space itself. He parked the jetter on the Mile-Up deck, and took the elevators twenty stories down.
The apartment entrance turned to the kitchen where a woman in her mid twenties with a long red hair was pouring a bowl of steaming soup to a young blond girl sitting at the table. They were in a middle of a laughter until they saw him enter. He strode without a word to the table and dropped an ember-colored ring on its top.
“What is that?” the girl was the first to ask.
“Just some credits we could use…” Fifty thousand logged into that ring, good to be used throughout the galaxy.
“From where?” the woman harsh voice turned instantly on him. “Where did you get it?” she demanded the answer, and Irkoniss instantly jerked backward.
“I did a job-“
“What job?” The torching flame leaped from her eyes. “What job did you do??”
“Just a job that paid…”
“Stupid!” The smile on the woman’s face had long disappeared, her red hair seemed to get on fire as well as her eyes stared him down. “What job? Is that why my suite was gone? Answer it stupid? I need to know if we have to vacate this place at once...”
“No… not it’s nothing like that, Mikka… let me explain…” the man was taking a step back again, feeling quite uncertain if it was only her anger that was to befall on him the next second, suddenly very unsure of what to do, and what exactly he had done. “I have not put you in any danger…” he tried to assure her as he lifted his hands up in resignation.
“Explain… Explain yourself to me… Now!” She demanded with any traces of softness left out of her look and voice.
Irkoniss sighed, now not sure if his next breath may be his last.
“I thought you would be pleased. It’s loaded with fifty thousand credits…That can buy us everything for more than a year, and you don’t need to go to… work. That’s good, isn’t it?”
“Good?” Mikka was just shaking her head. “Why don’t you tell me everything, everything that you did, and then I will tell you if it is good or not, stupid! And don’t skill on any detail.”
Irkoniss nodded.
“And don’t skip on any detail…” she said again. “If you do, it would be equal as lying to me. And you know you should never lie to me. If you do, it will be the last time I ever let you speak. You know that, right?.”
Even though Mikka was not quite good at presenting her thoughts and intentions, he knew she meant to either pull out his tong or chop his head off. He debated for a split second which of those options would be better.
So Irkoniss told her everything that happened to him in the last few hours. He told her how he went to the guy he knew from before, and the guy told him of a quick 50,000 credits he could earn if he could just get two paintings for him. He gave him a whole sketch of the place including the outlines of a security system. Then he told her how he ‘borrowed’ her stealth suite, not asking her for a permission since she was not at home, and the rest of what happened that evening. He didn’t even miss details about the shooting, about the smell of the cologne that the man who died reeked off.
“I could have run, before police came…I
could have just left. But I wanted to get that money for us…for you, two of you…so I went inside the study and picked up three paintings that were on the wall. The man asked for two of them, but I could not guess which ones. So I got all three.”
Mikka had to laugh, still shaking her head. She thought hard not to say ‘stupid’ yet again.
“I thought you would be pleased…”
“Why would I be pleased? You risk your life for mere fifty thousand credits…Not that I care about your life, but as you can see, I let you stay here with us, saved your sorry-ass life from Pluk. If I knew when you kneeled and wowed your life to me with that blood oath… if I knew that all you were was a cheap thief…”
“Hey, he did it to help us…” the little girl stepped in, not liking at all to see the pain on Irkoniss face and words of the woman she respected so much to had done just that.
“It was not that much of a risk, I thoughts, and besides, we need the money…I would have done it for less…”
“I know! I know you would. You are that stupid,” the red-haired could not help it anymore, “No wonder you finished on Pluk.”
“No need to insult him,” the girl defended him now more forcefully. “Do you do that to everyone who tries to help you or do anything for you?” She let those words silence the air before she sting her savior again “No wonder you are all alone…”
“It’s okay, Silent,” Irkoniss tried to find the truce. “I should had asked first before doing this…”
“So what happened with the third painting?” Mikka remembered to ask. “You said you picked three of them but sold only two…”
“Well, in the end, I figured out which two were the ones that the guy wanted, so I hid the third one…”
“Away from here?”
“Yes, I hid it…”
“You understand, it probably has a tracker, and the police will find it very swiftly…At least you didn’t bring it here, otherwise we would have to leave right away.”