by Vu, Andrew
But I can’t think this way. Now is not the time to crack. One second of weakness could get me killed. The bird man threw a bomb at us and if I didn’t have my instincts, I could have been killed. As much as I sympathize with their plight, I’d rather be the one who comes out alive.
The more I think about that kill, the more I’m surprised they want to meet us at all. It seems like poor strategy to invite your enemies into your lair to negotiate when you don’t have anything to bargain with. My peers didn’t seem to think twice about it, though. They’re foolish because they completely underestimate what these halfkinds are capable of. Am I the only one to see the obvious? That it could be a trap? Am I the only one who gives the halfkinds any sort of credit?
We haven’t heard from our leader since he embarked on his operation. I wonder how things went. I wouldn’t be surprised if Commander Trevor and his crew of heroes got captured and it was up to me to save his sorry ass. Though, to be honest, I would find satisfaction in that.
Then, as if fate is listening to me, I hear a beep on my communicator. The others react to the beep as well. I receive the signal and a graphical holo display appears before me. I see boxes with Colbo, Erawan, and Commander Trevor on my screen. We’re all linked up.
“Where’s Apollo?” I ask Commander Trevor.
“He’s recovering from an injury,” he says.
“What happened?” Colbo asks.
Trevor pauses a bit, hesitant to tell us the answer. I see his eyes looking away from the screen nervously. “Borton’s dead.”
“What?” Colbo says, shocked by the news. “What happened?”
“When we got to the casino, we ambushed a small camp of halfkinds there. It was Maddie, Oscar, Iris, and Isaac Lawton. We were able to subdue them, but Borton fired without permission and killed Oscar. This led to an argument between the three of us and, while we were distracted, Maddie impaled Borton with a piece of debris.”
“Good job,” I say sarcastically.
“Shut up!” Trever yells.
“I thought you were there to negotiate,” Colbo says to ease the tension. “Why did it all of a sudden become a stand down?”
“Because they didn’t know we were there to negotiate,” he says. “Someone had set them up. They had no idea we were coming. Then Borton, against my orders, went in firing a barrage of shots and things got messy.”
“Why would someone set them up?” Colbo asks. “And who?”
“We think it’s one of their own, but we can’t confirm,” Trevor responds. “We just know they weren’t expecting us like we thought they were.”
“When did all this happen?” I ask Commander Trevor.
“About thirty minutes ago,” he says.
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” I demand.
“Because I was looking for Apollo.”
“And where was he?”
Once again Trevor pauses. “He was chasing after two halfkinds that got away, Iris and Isaac Lawton. He followed them all the way down to the sewer and they attacked him, knocked him out cold. When he didn’t return, I went looking for him and found the open manhole cover he entered from. It didn’t take me long to discover where he was. He was unconscious and I had to attend to his wound. He’s okay now, though, but he lost their scent and doesn’t know where they went.”
“And now those two are gone?” Colbo says. Trevor nods his head. “Well, isn’t that fantastic.”
“Why did Borton disobey your orders?” I ask Trevor.
“Because he was only thinking about himself,” he says. “I gave the call to capture them, but he refused to obey. Borton took it upon himself to do it. He was more concerned about what the Alliance wanted than what I directly told him to do.”
Colbo has a confused expression on his face. “Excuse me for my rudeness, Commander, but wasn’t Borton right? Shouldn’t we be concerned with Alliance orders? I mean, the goal of the mission is to eliminate the halfkinds and it seemed you were in the position to do so.”
Trevor narrows his brow.
“I know what we’re sent here for, what our goal is,” he says in a raised voice. “But we do things my way. Unless these things are threatening your life, I don’t want any merciless killings, you understand? When we encountered Oscar’s group, they came peacefully for the most part. I already had this discussion with Borton, I’m not going to have it again with you.”
“Borton is dead and Apollo is injured,” Colbo says. “Seems they didn’t come as peacefully as you thought.”
The Commander looks even angrier than before. “This is the end of this discussion. I’m not going to talk about it anymore.”
Colbo has a skeptical look on his face. “As you wish, Commander.”
“So, now what’s the plan?” I ask the group.
“I assume you all have been staking out the Gonzalez station?” he asks us.
“That is correct,” I respond.
“See anything suspicious?” he asks.
“No,” I say. “We arrived at 1 AM and set up a perimeter as you commanded. Nothing has gone in or out. The lights are off inside, there doesn’t seem to be any activity there, but I can only guess since we haven’t been able to investigate inside.”
“Okay, that’s good that you stayed your ground,” he says. “I want you to finish up your search, head inside, and inspect from there.”
“But it doesn’t seem that there’s anyone inside,” Colbo says. “Shouldn’t our focus be on the other station?”
“We’ll get to that one soon enough. Just do a quick sweep and nothing more. If you have reason to think there’s something suspicious then continue, but if you don’t we’ll meet at the Li Station. Shouldn’t take more than ten minutes. Apollo needs some time to recover from his wound, so I’m going to give him a breather while you guys fulfill your order.”
“Fair enough,” Colbo says.
“Keep your communicators on, at least in sound mode,” Trevor says. “I want to hear what’s going on, understood?”
“Understood,” Colbo says. “And what about the twins?”
“We’ll have to worry about them later. Right now the priority is the teleporters. This is Trevor signing off.”
His display shuts off, but the others are still signed on.
“Meet me at my location so we can go over our tactics,” I tell the others. I see them leaving their posts and they come walking my way. I then turn my communicator off and they do as well.
“So, how should we do this?” Colbo asks.
“We’ve already swept the boundary,” I say. “And there doesn’t seem to be any activity inside. There are three entrances on the north, west, and east side. Let’s split up and enter from the three sides and then start our search there. Agreed?”
They all nod their heads. Colbo starts to walk to the station, but stops and turns around. “Man, that Borton had some guts to defy the Commander’s orders.”
I scoff at his comment. “Yeah, and now he’s dead because of it.”
Erawan doesn’t say anything, but Colbo looks a bit unpleased by my comment.
“Hey, he was one of us, have some respect,” Colbo says.
“I don’t respect hot-headed soldiers who defy orders and kill innocent, unarmed individuals.”
Colbo looks shocked by my statement. “When did you have a change of heart? Is this world going crazy? Am I the only one who realizes that this is what we were sent to do? If the Commander wants to puss out, that’s fine and dandy, but I’m not going to balk at fulfilling my duty, especially when it’s an Alliance order.”
“So, you would murder harmless bystanders if your boss told you to?”
“Um, excuse me, last time I checked, they attacked and killed Borton,” Colbo says like he’s offended.
“And last time I checked, Borton provoked them. I doubt he would’ve died if he had listened to the Commander.”
“It’s his fault for not being careful,” Colbo says. He lifts his gun from the ground into his arms.
“Don’t expect me to be the same way.”
“Confident as ever,” I say sarcastically.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asks in an irritated manner. “Before this evening started, you seemed to be willing to do what it takes to get the job done. Now all of a sudden, you’re going soft. What gives?”
I look at the ground and then I look back up to the others. “After our skirmish at the supply depot, I started to think about things. We’ve been sent to kill these things, yet they haven’t done anything to us. They only thing they want is to live. And how do we, our leaders, as a society, react to their discovery? We come in with guns in the air. They weren’t even given a chance, we sent them out for execution the minute we knew of them.”
“Well,” Colbo says, “you know why we’re doing this. I mean, we’ve talked about it so many times now.”
“Just because I know why doesn’t make it any more right.”
“That’s too bad for you then, but when it comes down to it, if our lives are on the line, I want to know that I, the rest of the team, can count on you. You’re not going to get cold feet because you’ve got a case of guilt all of a sudden?”
I look at Colbo. His face is humorless, his lower lip protrudes, and his brow tightens. He’s dead serious.
“Don’t worry about it,” I say callously.
“Good.” He turns his back to me and starts to stride away. I look at Erawan who hasn’t said a word the whole time.
“You don’t talk much do you?” I ask him.
He lowers his head so that we are eye level and looks directly at me.
“No, I don’t,” he says sternly. He then turns around and marches in Colbo’s direction.
At least one of us understands what the hell is going on.
Chapter 23 – Curtis Lawton - Lair
November 17, 3040 2:34 AM
I got to the Gonzalez station at about midnight. Candy’s programs worked like a charm. The window she set to disable security was from 12 AM to 12:30 AM and, like clockwork, I walked through the doors without a hint of struggle. Once inside, I turned the security systems off and started to lay the foundations of my final resting place.
I walked around a bit to see what I was working with. The teleport station wasn’t too big, but it was roomy enough for me to conceal myself from the view outside. The walls were high and the floor was checkered black and white. Multiple screens hung from floor to ceiling, but they were off when I arrived. Everything was off, the station was in full charge mode.
There was a lot of furniture on the floor: benches, some food stands, ticket counters, and other things. There was also a large metal box with safety signs on it. That must have been the generator that Candy mentioned. Lastly, there were ten or so teleport pods lined up against the wall. I wouldn’t be using them, though, maybe just for cover.
After I was done surveying the area, I looked inside my pack to see its contents. A small handheld device was at the bottom, I took it out to observe. It was a transmitter, a wrist mounted one. It wasn’t a fancy holo display model, but it was what I needed. Tiago wanted to make sure I sent him a sign when I executed my plan. That way he would know when the deed is done.
I attached it on to my wrist and it fit snuggly. The transmitter had a button in the middle. All I had to do was press it and Tiago would receive a little beep. That was the signal I had to give. After observing it for a few seconds, I continued rummaging through my backpack.
I felt something hard yet light touch my hands. They were the two energy pistols that Ace had swiped from his earlier supply run. I took one out to inspect. It was fully charged and felt light in my hand. I gripped it and got comfortable with my aim. My finger caressed the trigger. I looked at a trash dispenser nearby, pointed my gun at it, and took a shot. A quick light dispersed from the barrel and grazed the side of the unit. I’m not that skilled of a shooter, but my goal isn’t to kill, it was to lure them in.
I set the gun aside and dug through the bag again. This time I pulled out a flat disc like object. They were garden mines, compact and precise. It was extremely light and I probably could have tossed it clear across the station if I wanted to. There were a lot of them, at least fifty in my bag.
Tiago’s instructions about these were simple. I press the small button to arm them. After they’re armed, they’d beep a few times and then stop. There wouldn’t be a way to figure out where I placed them after that, no lights, no sounds. I’d have to remember where I put them exactly. If I didn’t, I could very well blow myself up. My plan was to lay them around the perimeter and stay clear from it afterwards. I’d be waiting in the center, anyway.
I’m surprised these things were at the supply depot, so I guessed they’re not very strong, probably made to scare away small animals in the woods for someone who might need that sort of thing. I highly doubted they would do enough damage to injure a trained operative, but, again, it was just to lure them in.
Those items weren’t for me, it was for any possible intruders I might run into. The last thing in the pack was for my use.
I pulled it out, a long metal cylinder custom made by Candy. It was an explosive, the same kind that she had made for Lombardi, only much more powerful. According to Tiago, it could take down this whole station if need be. It worked the same way, clutch the handle, the bomb arms, let go of the handle, the bomb detonates within a few moments.
These were the tools I would use to do my work. Like an artist and his brush, I respected the equipment I was given. I made sure that no resource would go unused, everything was important.
With all the items in hand, I went to work setting the trap. I took the garden mines and walked around the perimeter, arming and tossing mines around like I was sowing seeds in a garden. I concentrated all of them towards the entrance doors that hug three different walls. They were the only way anyone could get in, so when our enemies entered, they’d have a nasty surprise for them.
I then grabbed whatever I could and constructed a fort smack in the middle of the station. Benches, trash dispensers, pieces of wood and metal, anything I could get my hands on became a part of my reinforcement. This was where I planned to hunker down when the enemies came. While they blast their shots, I’d be hiding, waiting for them, drawing them in.
That’s what the guns were for. I didn’t plan to kill anything. My shot proved I wasn’t that great. I wanted to bait them in, like flies. As long as my fort held up, I could stay there until they come close enough for me to make my last move, my master stroke, the reason I was in the Gonzalez station in the first place and not some corpse in a grass field.
The creatures that were after us, they know we were headed to a teleporter. There were only two in Primm, the Li station and the Gonzalez station. The Li station was farther from the depot where they found Lombardi, farther from our hideout. Tiago said, tactically, our pursuers would investigate the Gonzalez station first. Little did they know I’d be waiting for them.
My mission was simple - when they come, I’d draw them in. I’d fire some shots and the mines I placed would go off if they got near them. They’d be stunned and filled with adrenaline, then rush to their target without even thinking twice about what was in store for them. The second I felt like they were within range, I would set off Candy’s bomb and it’d be goodbye to our enemies.
Tiago would have the time he needed to make his escape. I’d have my rest and, in doing so, I’d help my family. I’ve wanted both for a long time. I thought about it, talked about it, and now I could finally do something about it.
Tiago mentioned that I could turn back whenever I wanted to. He shouldn’t have wasted his breath. I was only going forward, not backward. Though I had my doubts here and there, though I didn’t fully trust Tiago, I was and still am ready to end this. I don’t want to live anymore. My encounter with that drunk lion proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that this world would fear me, that I was a monster. Monsters get burned at the stake, I’d rather end my life on my own terms.
<
br /> Some think suicide is selfish. I think those people don’t know what it’s like to hate yourself so much that you question your existence. Only then would they know what it’s like to want to take your own life.
What I’m doing isn’t selfish, what I’m doing is for the family. If anything, it’s selfless.
After I had completed the setup of my lair, I heard some noise outside and carefully crept to a window to see who it was. I saw the wolf and gorilla that Ace mentioned, the ones that killed Lombardi. They also were accompanied by an elephant. Tiago was right, they did come. These were the creatures that I would have my revenge on, the ones that I could put an end to so that my brothers, both Oscar and Tiago, won’t have to worry about them anymore.
I was ready to take them on, but for some reason they stayed outside. They set up camp and resided there, didn’t even bother to come near the doors. I was ready for them, ready to pull the trigger to bring them in, to squeeze the handle of my bomb so it could blast them to pieces, but I had to wait.
I considered drawing them in anyway, but if they weren’t coming, I would leave them alone. They couldn’t go after the others if they were in my sight. I wanted to buy Tiago as much time as possible and if I acted hastily, the clock would be much shorter. I only saw three of them and I was sure there were more. There was no need to set off the alarms, it might have sped up their actions.
So I waited, and waited, and wait. It’s now two and a half hours past midnight, and they’re still outside. I wonder if they’re ever going to storm the gates. From an obscure position, I’m able to see where they are. Before, they were scattered around on each side, watching the perimeter like guardians. I’m surprised they didn’t notice me. It must be hard to see what’s inside since they’ve been hovering away from the building. But now, they’re congregating in the distance. I can faintly see them with their headsets on, talking on a holoscreen to someone. That must be their leader. I wonder where he is right now. Maybe he’s observing from a command station, maybe he’s looking for the others. I hope they’re okay.