by Gavin Magson
Duke stopped chuckling as Ilya placed a hand on his shoulder, the grip tight and reassuring.
“Duke, you’re avoiding the hard truth here, though I think we can all see where you are going with this. No one can blame you for not wanting to say the words, but we all need to hear them.” spoke Ilya, softly.
“Fine, there’s no pulling the wool over your eyes. Greg is right, this is a lot of money to suddenly be spending on some very specialist medical equipment. Officially I am not a rich man, even the sale of my ship would struggle to explain the amount of credits I’d be waving around. My physician won’t be the only one having to uproot themselves from Konar as a result from this.”
Duke felt a pain unlike any he’d experienced before seeing the hurt, sorrow, even resignation on his old crew’s faces. As much as it pained him to do so he continued, “I’ll have to leave Konar behind, find somewhere less caring about the origins of my credits and more caring about how I am spending them. I’ve saved most my life, and spent up on more than one occasion, but the last job leaves me with enough to live a comfortable life on a distant planet. There is every chance I might return to Troy, on a more permanent basis, but all of these I will consider once I am back from the surgery.”
“Fuck.” Lev’s words summed up perfectly what Duke’s audience collectively thought. “Is there no other way than to exile yourself? What about the Jane, what will happen to her?”
“I’ve also had a long think about that, as well. Ilya,” Duke stood from his stool, turning to face the young woman. “If you want it the ship is yours, to do with as you see fit. You’ve been a friend, a colleague, and above all a daughter to me; I cannot think of a better person to take over as her captain whilst I enjoy my retirement. Will you have her?”
Ilya was quick to dab away at the tears welling in her eyes, so overcome was she with Duke’s surprise. After several failed attempts to speak she finally managed to choke back the tears.
“Of course I will, Duke, if this is what you want, but on one condition; Greg and Lev will stay on and show me the ropes.”
“We wouldn’t dream of leaving you, not even with all the credits lining our pockets.” said Greg, his partner nodding beside him. “Just don’t turn into a hard ass like our last captain, it wouldn’t look good on you.”
“I’ve not handed over the reins to her just yet, so don’t start thinking you’re safe from my wrath.” muttered Duke.
“Are we allowed to celebrate Ilya’s new promotion with a drink and toast?” asked Lev, once the chuckles had ended.
“Not just yet, otherwise the surgery could get cancelled. We will celebrate in a few days’ time, once I have recovered enough to be able to enjoy a cool beer or two. You three best get going, I’ve still to pack some clothes and load up a couple credit chips before I head out.”
“Can I come with you?” asked Ilya.
“I’d be upset if you didn’t.”
Chapter 34
The voice was cold, calculating, conscious of the words that it spoke; Miles couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine as Rine’s voice came through the tablet’s speaker.
“I know that this is not what you want to hear, Miles, but I see no other way forward. Boden is out of my control and, like a wild fire, all I can hope is that he burns himself out.”
“I understand. How are the authorities looking on this?” asked Miles.
“Production and distribution have resumed in the slums, money is once more flowing into my coffers; the officials have been bought and paid for. I have, reluctantly, struck a deal with Boden to ensure production continues out of the facility, and that he protects my interests in the sector.
“If you think that you can bring him down, and you’d best be bloody sure he would stay down, it would be justly rewarded. I recognise that there is little you three can do against near two hundred, so I am not going to request you put your lives on the line again. Once I have sufficient funds from sales in the slums I might be able to hire a specialist to take care of Boden, but that will be awhile off. Report back to me if the situation changes, otherwise I wish you the best of luck in surviving.”
The connection terminated, Miles let out a stream of cursers as he stowed away his tablet.
“Let me guess, moneybags doesn’t want to disrupt the status quo and risk losing Boden’s production factory?” asked Jerry.
“You aren’t far off the mark. Rine knows he can’t go up against Boden and come out on top but did say if we can somehow take him out that we would be duly rewarded for such a fucking impossible task. The maniac has the best part of two hundred men to keep that compound locked down, minus whoever are sent out looking for us. We don’t have many options other than to stay holed up and out of sight until his guard drops and we can flee the sector.”
“So, this is what we have become? Scared little boys scurrying in the dark from the big bad monster.” Rex lent forward from his seat on a wooden crate, the shadow cast by a single light above the trio leaving his eye sockets a darkest black. The light glinted on specks of grey in his otherwise black stubble, several days’ worth of growth from having to ration water. “What we did to stop his men’s slaughter of those workers is for nothing if he is still out there, killing whoever he pleases, holding Rine to ransom. Is that how you want to live your lives?”
The room was cramped, the three men had not dared leave it for the last two days. A hastily dug pit in one corner was the closest to a latrine they could manage, with a sleeping roll each laid out on the opposite wall to the pit.
Jerry had stumbled upon an access hatch that lead down to an underground room, which had acted as some form of store at a stage of its life. There had been a little food left when he climbed down to inspect the contents, which had proven handy when another death squad had appeared at the top of their street, marching towards the men. Since then they had called the room home, eating through what non-perishable food they had left.
The death squads had not been too difficult to evade, providing that the men kept their wits about them, but a desire to remain close to Boden in case they could end his oppression of the people meant that the roving squads were an all too frequent sight.
“No, Rex, none of us want this. Every part of me wants to fight, to put that rabid dog down and clean up this cesspit of a sector. Yes, it’s beyond our job description to clean up Rine’s mess, but we all had our part to play in bringing that monster to the party. The problem is, I’m all out of ideas right now.” said Miles, the resignation in his voice all too obvious.
As Jerry went to open his mouth the muted pops of gunfire interrupted him. Seven shots were fired in quick succession, somewhere at ground level, followed by the faint wailing of the injured. Miles placed his hand on Rex’s shoulder as the man made for the access ladder, gun in hand; a shake of his leader’s head was enough to make the reluctant man resume his seat. The screams lasted mere heartbeats before three gunshots silenced them. All was quiet once more.
“The exo’s, they are our only chance up against the bastard.” said Jerry, his voice flat and devoid of emotion.
“Shame we had to trash the ones left behind, otherwise I’d be all for storming the compound and unleashing death upon the bastards.” chimed in Rex.
“I know that we did, but I meant the ones that we sold to Rine. If we contacted Rose, there might be a way for us to hijack them and use them against Boden’s men. Maybe it would only provide a distraction, but that could be enough for one of us to eliminate Boden.”
“It’s fucking risky, but that’s not a terrible idea, especially as I had Rose install a kill switch in the exo’s in case of an emergency like this.” said Miles.
Miles chuckled at the look of both men’s faces, his news coming as a surprise to both of them. When Rex began to swear he knew keeping the kill switch secret for this long was not the best of decisions.
“Now you tell us there is a way of disabling the exo’s? Did you not think there was a more appropriate
time? I don’t know, perhaps when we were running for our fucking lives whilst those machines tore half the sector apart?” Rex’s voice was raised, the volume getting dangerously close to being audible from above ground.
“Do you want the entirety of Konar to know about the kill switches? Keep your voice down before we are dealing with his horde of mercs. Yes, I admit I could have said something a little earlier, but you two would only have urged me to send the kill command without chance for any planning our next move.”
“What’s so wrong with that?” asked Jerry. “If all the exo’s were disabled we could have saved civilian lives! Surely that is what it was designed to do.”
“You’re right, that is exactly what it is designed to do, but there is a limited range to the transmitter. Getting all the exo’s in one place would be unlikely, and I don’t know how many uses I will get out of the transmitter to try and pick them off one by one. Combine that with the fact that we have no way to reset the exo’s, which means we’d, at best, likely only get a single kill out of disabling an exo and probably show our hand too.
“Let me talk to Rose first and see if she is willing to help; without a way to reset the exo’s we still have little to no hope of taking down Boden. I just hope she didn’t take the credits and leave Konar entirely.” It frustrated him to no end that he couldn’t join Rex in speaking his mind, Miles knew that he had to remain calm and rational for the sake of his men.
“I hope she answers, we haven’t got much of a hope of changing the status quo from this hole.” said Rex, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. “We’ve no food, little water, and no plan; at least it can’t get much worse.”
Miles tapped the screen of his tablet to wake it, a bright light momentarily illuminated his face before it dimmed considerably. Miles swore once he discovered the reason behind the loss of backlight.
“The battery is almost out of charge.” proclaimed Miles to his men, who joined him in letting out curses.
“That settles it, I’m going up top-” Miles made to speak at this, but Rex spoke louder until he’d quietened his leader. “And I know how stupid an idea that might seem, but it almost nightfall, the mercs will have moved on by now, and I’m not stupid enough to get trapped by those knuckle draggers. If I don’t leave this room I’m going to have a fucking mental break. Miles, let’s swap tablet batteries and I’ll see what I can do about recharging yours.”
Miles handed over his tablet and, with the precision tool of a knife’s tip to pry open the casing, Rex deftly swapped batteries between the two devices. After his tablet had restarted Miles noted how the charge indicator now showed treble that of what it had moments ago.
“There, that should last you more than long enough to make a few calls to Rose. Do either of you need something brought back?”
“A big titted whore or three wouldn’t go amiss.” chimed in Jerry.
“Top of my list, mate, don’t you worry.”
“Just, don’t be stupid up there. I know you’re frustrated that we have made no progress, or plans, whilst hiding down here, but if you take that out on a merc Boden’s men will soon be alerted; I can’t guarantee Jerry and I would get to you in time. Secure some supplies, only charge the tablet if there is ample opportunity, and keep your head low.”
“Understood.” and with that Rex headed up the ladder.
There was little noise generated by Rex’s ascent, the cloth he had taped around his boots cushioning each step on the ladder’s rungs. Slung over his shoulder was his rifle and holstered at his hip was a pistol for close quarters. The knives in either boot were for dealing death when stealth was imperative.
When he reached the hatch, Rex fished his tablet out of a pocket and connected it to the trailing cable hanging from the hatch’s underside. With the cable attached Rex was able to view the camera’s feed that Jerry had setup and, through manipulating an arm that had also been fed through the same hole, could inspect all of the area above him.
Despite the thick hatch above his head Rex was able to hear some muffled noises which, by rotating the camera’s position, he realised was the weeping and wailing of a woman who was clutching a body. Rex continued his sweep of the area and, once satisfied there were no immediate threats, he detached the camera’s cable and gave the men below him a thumb up.
Rex swiftly loosened the hatches restraints whilst the ladder began to slightly shake. He waited until Jerry had reached the rungs below him before pushing the hatch up, holding onto the handle to prevent it swinging all the way and hitting the floor. Rex climbed out and pulled the hatch back into position, allowing Jerry to secure it again behind him.
He took several deep lungful’s and savoured the hydrocarbon rich air of sector Seven, free from the cramped and humid results of sharing such a small space with two other men. Rex had rarely experienced anything more relaxing in all his years.
Moving away from the hatch Rex swept the area for signs of danger, he was glad to only be met with the seemingly standard signs of destruction Boden’s men left behind.
The weeping woman was not alone, there were two children nearby who, from the expressions on their faces, appeared to be suffering from shock of the man’ death. Rex guessed the man to be their father, or at least a close relative; he thought better of bothering the group. Instead he slunk off into the night-time shadows, keeping close to the buildings as he headed north east and towards Boden’s newly acquired compound.
For several streets Boden did not pass a single soul, and barely spotted any wildlife scavenging from the waste accumulating in this part of the sector; the Recyclers had yet to return to the lower slums and would have a near endless amount of work once they did. Rex came to a stop when he heard raised voices in the distance.
“He’s just a kid, Jarl; we can leave him be, the boss only wants the civ’s to fear us, we don’t need to kill everyone.”
A whimper was cut short by the noise of fist meeting flesh, which Rex guessed to be the poor unfortunate whose time was running out.
“I know what the boss said, do you not remember when he gave us free license to have fun in this shithole of a city? So,” Rex heard the metallic clink of a belt undoing as he crept closer to the voices, “I’m going to have my fun with this,” thwack, the belt met flesh, “filthy street rat.”
Thrice more the belt rained down on the boy, by now Rex was only several buildings away and, from the opposite side of the street, could plainly see the cowering figure as it tried to protect itself from the blows. The whimpering was replaced by yelps and sobbing, which carried on once the man had finished.
“Now, why don’t you hold his arms out above his head whilst I take my pleasure. If the boy screams I’m going to cut his throat. See, that shut him up.”
Rex watched in horror as the man called Jarl clawed at the boy’s trousers, pulling them down, whilst his companion stood around, uncertain whether to protest or comply.
Rex didn’t wait to see how this transpired, he instead unsheathed the blades in either boot and moved up the row of buildings until he was all but parallel with the man struggling to now remove his own trousers. The boy was no longer fighting, which left the second man to stand and watch as the assault continued. Rex closed the gap between himself and the rapist effortlessly and rested the edge of his right-hand blade on the man’s throat before his companion had chance to find his forgotten gun.
“What do we have here then, gentlemen?” Rex’s voice was soft, calm, unnerving to someone whose life was so close to its end.
“Just… just having some fun with the boy. Putting the fear in him to stay indoors at this hour. I wasn’t going to do anything, I swear.” there was no calm left in Jarl; Rex could feel tears splash on his arm.
“This little fella thinks different.” Rex rested the flat of his spare blade under the man’s erect penis and grinned as he felt Jarl buck at the sudden shock.
“That got your attention. Now,” Rex looked straight into the eyes of the other man, weighing up just ho
w likely he was to make a move for his gun. “I’m going to make sure you’re incapable of rape ever again. If you scream, I’ll cut your throat.”
The sobbing was uncontrollable as realisation dawned on Jarl and, much to Rex’s surprise, the man didn’t try to fight, plead, or call for his companion to gun Rex down.
With one fluid, savage motion Rex’s left arm came up, the blade cutting through the man’s genitals with ease. For several heartbeats no one made a single sound, but as the brain caught up to the sudden pain Jarl began to scream. With a jerk of his right arm Rex silenced the man, indefinitely.
The body pitched sideways, blood pumping out of the two wounds to douse the cobblestones underfoot. Rex ignored the second mercenary, who was rooted to the spot and staring at his comrade; instead, he turned to the young boy and helped him dress himself.
“Thank…thank you, mister. I thought he was going to kill me.” the boy couldn’t have been much older than ten, dangerously thin and stinking from life on the street.
“He won’t be hurting anyone again, kid. Do you know your way home from here?”
The boy nodded, his eyes wandering past Rex to stare at the corpse behind them. Rex moved over to block the child’s view and motioned for the boy to leave; he didn’t need telling twice. Rex watched him run off, and for the first time noticed the glinting eyes in the deepest parts of the shadows; scavengers waiting to devour the dead man.
“So, are you in the business of raping young children too?” asked Rex, before turned to stare down the surviving mercenary.
“Me? No, never. I’m just here for the pay, Jarl was the one who took other forms of payment.”
“This the first time you’ve helped him hold down a victim?”
Rex stared hard at the man, waiting for the moment he hoped wouldn’t come; the man broke and looked away, tears forming in his eyes.
“The first time for one so young.”
The man tensed, obviously expecting some form of violent act on Rex’s behalf, yet none came.