The Rising Sun: Episode 3
Page 39
The large hall was illuminated by faint sunlight that seeped in through the gaps left in the windows’ curtains. In the complete darkness, a group of men wielding Sparklers stood silently, spread in a well spaced out cluster in the centre of the room. A large batch of Rash-cons, numbering to over two dozen, stood spaced out by the room’s wall.
And at the centre of the group of men stood Ion, with one leg over the tied up, half conscious body of the target.
“That took longer than expected.” said Grando, standing before Ion. “And this is my best hunter I’m talking to.”
“It was a mystic.” Ion told him. A look of sharp surprise drew over Grando’s face.
“A mystic?” The shock vanished behind a thoughtful look. He scanned the feebly stirring body between the two of them. “That make sense … I was beginning to wonder how one person could create more trouble than even the Special Forces ever have.”
“Well, you’re lucky both of us is alive.” Ion gave the body a faint kick, and heard a faint groan. “But you’re even more lucky that he’s alive.”
Grando smiled nastily. “Indeed … we both are.”
“My pay?” asked Ion.
“Of course,” said Grando, nodding, as he turned to the other men. “Why don’t you boys begin –” He beckoned to the body in the centre. “Ion and I will join you shortly.”
The men roughly picked up the body and bustled over to a corner of the room, where Ion knew they would torture the vigilante who had given them so much problems … teach him manners their way, before giving him his exit.
Grando and Ion went strolling to the other corner of the room, while Grando ruffled in his pocket. He finally dug out a small chit of paper, and handed it to Ion. Ion pocketed the slip that held the sum of money he was entitled for this job.
Grando gave him a friendly smile, patting him on the shoulder. “You’re the one person I really couldn’t have done without, old friend.”
Across the hall, Ion could hear the man in the centre, who had come around, screaming. And the rest of the men laughing and jeering.
“Anyone else you need me to hunt?” asked Ion, hoping for a ‘yes.’
Grando mulled over the question for a long moment, his eyes unfocussed as he thought.
“Plenty,” he said finally. “but not right now.”
“Tell me when you do,” said Ion, feeling all of the brutality and senselessness that he had carried for years return to fully seize him again. “Cause killing is too fun to miss out.” And I can’t believe a few hours back I was actually questioning that …
Grando gave a savage chuckle. “I feel so, too.”
The screams of the vigilante had grown loud enough to leave ghastly echoes in the hall.
“Well,” said Grando, licking his lips. “We don’t wanna miss out on the fun, do we?” He beckoned to the corner where the men were torturing the vigilante.
Ion cracked his knuckles. “Of course not.”
Gritting in teeth in hungry anticipating, he followed Grando down the hall, to where the group of men stood around a helpless, writhing creature on the floor between them. He had his head wrapped in his hands, shaking violently. One of his legs had a nasty cut around it, so that the cloth around it was soaked in dark crimson.
One of the men turned and handed the man’s iron mask to Grando, who chuckled looking at the iron helm, before tossing it aside. The helm bounced on the floor with a metalling clang.
Ion pulled his sword out and ignited it.
“Shall I?” he asked, looking at Grando.
“Help yourself.”
Screaming wildly, Ion let his sword sink right through the side of the man’s torso, away from his vital parts so as to ensure he didn’t die. The agony choked the man’s screams, his hands trembling as they clutched his head. The men’s laughter boomed after his scream, revelling in the anguish of the whimpering creature amidst them.
“I guess we can end it now,” said Grando. “put him off his misery.”
“We don’t have to.” said one of the men, wagging the gun he was holding – a Stinger. “We gave him five shots of it. He’s gonna die anyway.”
“No need to leave chances,” said Grando. “We need this one dead far too crucially.” Pulling out his Sparkler, he walked up and sent a hurling kick at the body on the ground. The man rolled over on the ground, so that Ion saw his young face … a familiar face.
It was Eol.
To be continued …
In THE RISING SUN – Episode 4