“B-but, I did not kill her. The girl, she took her own...” The mark’s voice trailed off, knowing that his lies would be meaningless to the man standing before him.
Before taking the life of the trembling man who had taken the life of Shene, the killer explained to him how he, the killer, had been the one to rescue Shene from her life as a child sex slave, how they both had been hit by an explosion during the rescue, how, months later after he had recovered from the blast, he had sought to learn what had happened to the girl, and how, once learning of her death at the hands of him, her uncle – the killer pointed his saber at his mark’s throat when identifying him as Shene’s murderer – he had been planning to kill the man ever since.
The mark tried to plead his defense, to explain how it was his duty to do what he did to his niece in order to uphold the honor of his family, but the killer wouldn’t allow it. To the killer there could be no defense for such a crime as heinous as taking the life of a poor pregnant girl out of some perverted sense of honor. Nor would the killer allow the mark to say his final prayers to such a spiteful god as his that would be, if not outright condoning, then at least apathetic to such a crime.
✽ ✽ ✽
The sun began to dawn and an unsettling red glow began to bleed out upon the apocalyptic night still mad with its howling winds and blowing sand just as the killer completed his mission and began wiping his saber clean on the shirt of the headless corpse. He returned the weapon to the sash around his waist and turned to begin on his way. He could now make out the frenzied dog still barking and struggling desperately at the end of his leash to get at him. He picked up the severed head of Shene’s killer and tossed it over to the beast, finally bringing it to silence as it began lapping at its blood and chewing hungrily on its meat and sinew.
The killer then began walking toward the hellish glow of the rising sun, setting out on a journey that would take him from this troubled part of the world filled with its ancient grudges and medieval ways and return him to the world in which he truly belonged, not the one he recently dreamed of, the tranquil fairytale world full of soft, cool breezes and vibrant colors and which held for him the promise of a life of love and companionship, but a world dark and colorless and crawling with a vicious breed of humans who thrived on the brutal exploitation of countless innocent victims just like Shene, an ugly, hate-filled world in need of an ugly, hate-filled justice, a kind of justice only a person like he could provide.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank his editors Kelli Martin and Don Martin for making The Good Kill a significantly better body of work than it would have been or could have been without their keen editorial eye, intellectual insight, and thoughtful guidance.
All that is good about this book is due in large part to their kind collaboration; all that remains less than good with it is due solely to the author's efforts alone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kurt served twenty years and four days in the navy and "retired" as a Senior Chief Petty Officer in 2003. He traveled much of the world as a sailor and, aye, he's got some stories to tell...
Hang out with Kurt and maybe even share with him some stories of your own at his website kurtbrindley.com or any of the various social networks out there that he occasionally haunts.
More praise for LEAVE
"So vivid in its telling. I felt like I was a fly on a wall observing the "boys will be boys" banter aboard this ship."
~ KL, a Goodreads review
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