by Andre Pisco
"Be respectful. Tell them everything that happened. I'll play the video on the screen. In the end, you two can go to sleep. Crash, or James, yes, I better call you James in here, you can answer the questions." He said and laid his hand on the doorknob.
"Yes, I'll take care of everything. Take a bath and rest."
"Is there a place to bathe here? From the smell and the stained clothes, it doesn't look like much."
"We've got places up there fit for that. They're here working unpaid overtime. All because they believe in what we do here. There are people here who may not even have had dinner." Tom answered her.
She frowned and dropped a simple, "Okay, I get it."
Tom opened the door. 10 men gathered around a mahogany table, surrounded by cream-colored walls, and a chandelier above them. He was right; half of them were old men, wrinkled faces, overlapping skin layers, one or two warts, and a few with a gray beard and white hair. Everyone's eyes fell on us. One of them, the one in the opposite corner of the entrance, stood up. He signaled us to come in and while we were doing it, he decided to clean his glasses with the sleeve of his velvet coat. He seemed to be testing our patience and no one dared to call him out. I wondered if he was the boss, the leader of all that, and that was how he received people that he did not know.
"Well, you're finally here. Sit over there." He said and pointed to three empty chairs facing the table, "We know you have a video of what happened, right?"
Tom took the airtight bag out of his pocket, grabbed the camera with his fingernail and carried it to the projector on our right. The video was converted, and, in seconds, an image showed up on the wall. He pressed the play and the video played out.
The video showed everything we'd been through since we got out of the car prior to the party. Tom advanced the scenes in which nothing happened and slowed down the tunnel parts and those in which we fought against the robot. Nobody uttered a single word until the video was over. The looks on their faces shifted from doubt to fear. Some itched their beards, others tapped the ground with the sole of their shoes, and others stood up and leaned against the wall.
"You can stop." The man from before told him. The video was at the part where Maggie watched the whole house burn down, after I had saved Ashen, "Everybody sit down, please. The girls can go out and rest. I think one of you will be enough to answer some questions," the man said, just as Tom had prepared me.
Maggie thanked them and walked to the door. Elisa didn't move for a few seconds and her eyes ran through all the men in the room. They all seemed to shrink as soon as their eyes crossed.
"If you need us, call us." She told me, loud and clear.
"Tom, take them to her rooms." The man in the opposite corner said, "Don't worry, James, we won't keep you here long. You must be tired."
I nodded my head. The three of them left the room and it seemed to get much bigger. The 10 men looked at me, with slashes on my body and a half-inflated eye, and I knew that they already had an opinion about me without even getting to know me.
"Well, let's get started. First, my name is Aldrin. I'm second in command. As you can imagine, we can't risk having everyone gathered in the same place. The first question I have to ask you is how much do you trust them? We can't risk leaks at this time of the year."
"I totally trust them. I don't even think about having another team. We want to stay together and continue working for the Hunters' good," I replied, for the first time feeling back pain. It was as if, suddenly, I was carrying two bodies and one of them rested on top of me. I leaned back on the chair whose backside was rough.
"I see. You know you need a new team member, right?"
"Yes, I have an idea who I want. A girl I worked with at the academy. She's reliable and great at what she does," I told them and saw the skeptical glances multiply, "now what? What's the plan? What are you going to do?"
"That's a good question, kid. We've warned all Hunters of the possible dangers and asked them to always be in groups. Shimmer's being followed and we'll identify who's on the video. It'll be hard to get close to Lenetius, though. We can't risk being discovered. So far, none of our infiltrators have informed us that they knew about us. Apparently, we were lucky, and they think it was just a rebellion by Lenetius' daughter and a couple of young Hunters. I don't think the attack on your base had anything to do with you. It was just a coincidence..."
"Like the council?" I slipped.
"How did you get that information?"
"You're forgetting that it was Elisa who was organizing it. News travels fast."
"Hm, you're right. I wasn't exactly happy when I heard it was her who was behind the operation, but when I saw who was going with her, I thought it would be successful. Only reason I allowed a few Hunters to participate. But now I feel like I sent them to their deaths."
"You couldn't predict what was going to happen, boss. They knew the risks." The youngest man at the table told him. He had a grey suit, wrinkled on his shoulders, and blue eyes matching his ginger hair. His face was oval, and his pink cheeks stood out.
"I know. And yet, we're getting shorter. Your generation is no longer so eager to join a cause."
"We're fewer but better, more devoted, more willing to give our lives for the cause. We all believe the Hunters are important to the civilization and we don't want corruption to triumph," the boy answered again.
"And yet, they seem to expand steadily." The man said and sank back into his pillow chair, "After all you've been through, the least you deserve is a vote of confidence. Write on this paper who you want me to call and I’ll ask them if they want to join your team. Now you better go to sleep. You must be devastated." Aldrin said and pulled a paper and pen out of his pocket, placing them on the table.
The rest of them moved it along until they got to me. I wrote her name down and returned it. The same thing happened again until the paper was in Aldrin's hands. He opened it, nodded, and saved the paper in his pocket. I was going to say something when Tom came back in.
"They're already in their rooms. The hospital called me, and they said Ashen's going to make it. He might have to stay there for a few weeks."
"And Kendra?" I asked him.
"A few days should be enough for her to recover. We have cutting-edge technology and she only had one broken foot. Ashen had several ribs and a concussion," he said, walking to my side.
"Good." Aldrin said and slid his hand through his hair, the dandruff coming out of his hair resembled snow fluttering on a snow globe, "Before you leave, James, there's something I'd like to say. I don't know if the others will agree with me, but I think it's the best thing to do now. I think you and your group should go back to being normal Hunters. At least keep that facet. If the Reapers and the others, whoever they are, think it was just a rebellious attitude of Lenetius' daughter, what's her name again?"
"Maggie, her name is Maggie." I said, still trying to figure out his idea. My head hurt and my body looked like it was about to shut down. Never in my life had I felt my arms so soft and my legs so close to becoming ghosts, incapable of keeping me upright.
"Yeah. Well, if they think so, the best thing would be to keep you in front of everyone. Normal Hunters who, incidentally, made a mistake in an attempt to grow up fast. We might even spread the story or have you doing it. Draw attention to yourselves, brag about what you've done."
"Chief... are you sure? Don't you think they'll try to eliminate them when they expose themselves?"
"I've thought about it, but I don't think they will. If they try to take them down, it'll only prove their point. Truth be told, no one will believe that three amateurs have managed to get past all the security of Lenetius. If no one finds out we have his daughter on our side, it won't make any difference. And, Elisa, she hasn't been a Hunter in so long, unfortunately, that no one will recognize her. I don't think we'll face much trouble."
"But am I supposed to talk about the human beast?', I asked, thinking that his idea was not even as misplaced as it seeme
d to me at first.
"Yeah, talk about it, say it was scary and that you destroyed it. It will not be easy, boy. They won't believe you. They'll make you a liar and a cocky one, but it's the best way to stay in everyone's sight, so they won't try to attack you."
"That makes sense." I said, "so why do we need a new member?"
"Well, just because you pretend to be normal Hunters doesn't mean that all your battles will be on that stage. Do you understand me? I want you to keep helping us occasionally. You're already in rank C and with Elisa's help it won't be long before you get to A. Don't tell her, but the truth is, she could be one of the few rank S we have if it weren't for such an out-of-law attitude."
"You seem to know her very well." I answered him, rubbing my knee against each other, doing what I could to keep myself awake.
"A little. When she decided to drop everything, after what happened, I tried to convince her to stay. But she was determined to go out and create her own path. After that, we never kept in touch, even though I followed one thing or another that she did. She's not a bad person, and I'm glad to see she's found a home on your team again, boy. But, come on, I'm not going to hold you much longer. Does anyone disagree with the plan?"
Nobody got their hands in the air. I wondered if everyone agreed with him or no one dared to challenge him. Aldrin asked Tom to take me to my room and that we would talk in the morning, when we were all awake and after we had eaten something.
I thanked them and we both left the room.
I followed Tom down a corridor on the right until another door with an identifier appeared, this time adn-based.
"Damn it. I must look like an errand boy." Tom said, "His idea's not bad, but I know if Ashen were here, he'd have a better one. He always thought beyond others, always with an idea no one else had," he said, and I could see the pain in his black eyes, dilated pupils, and ripped skin on his lips.
"You were very close, weren't you?"
"We have been more. We were best friends at the academy, but then time took care of keeping us away. He went into the field and I moved here. We talk sometimes, but it's not like before... It's life, time passes, and friendships change."
After the door opened, we climbed up some stairs to the second floor. Unlike the first one, there was no noise at all. I couldn't see a soul, there weren't even any shoes echoing through the walls, papers falling on the floor, or people crashing into others and complaining. We stopped at the third door in a row of dozens along the corridor.
"The place you're staying, at least until tomorrow." Tom said, and opened the door, "It's not very spacious but it'll have to do."
There was a bed lined up in a corner. The walls were white, as well as the ceiling and apart from a bedside table and a cupboard on the opposite side, there was nothing else in the room. It was roomy enough for both of us, maybe three or four more people, but no more than that.
"I'm going to get going. I need to rest, too. By the way, if you want to take a shower before you go to sleep, the showers are down the hall. There's one for men and one for women."
I thanked him for all his help and waited for him to leave before I went to bed. The mattress was rough and stiff, but the pillow was perfect for laying my head down. I put my hands under my head and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about everything that had happened and that had taken me there.
Just a month ago I was just a rookie, a Hunter with illusions of grandeur who hoped to be the new Foxel, and now I was involved in a conspiracy dating back to my father's time and from which I could not escape. I felt like I was destined to be there, to help them, to continue my father's legacy. I had grown up all my life thinking he was hated and mocked in his environment but now I knew he was idolized in the most hidden corners of the organization. I sniffed my armpit and got nauseous, nearly vomiting. A strong rotten smell that made me ask how the 10 men had endured being in a locked room with me for so long.
Chapter III
I ended up deciding that before I went to sleep, I'd take a quick shower. I peeked before I left. The corridor was empty. It was the last moment I felt like being forced to have a circumstantial conversation with someone I didn't know. I opened the bathroom door and the lights came on automatically. The floor was damp and shiny, and the glass was still cloudy. There were five urinals, five open-door cubicles, and a shower behind it, surrounded by a few benches. It was like I was back in my high school locker room.
I went to the showers and turned on the water. I stabilized it until it was so hot that it numbed even my thoughts and I could lean against the wall and feel every drop hitting my body and descending. The filth abandoned my body, and the red of the dried blood and the watery soil mixed together near the drain.
I didn't even notice anyone coming near me. Someone's hands landed on my shoulders, squeezing them with the right amount of force so that all my worries vanished at that moment.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Elisa asked me and leaned on me.
"Yeah, don't stop. How did you know I'd be here?"
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a walk. I heard the water running and I assumed it was you at this time of the night. I got lucky." She said and took her hands off my shoulders. She put them on my chest and started going down until she reached my crotch. The water was still pouring over my head, now striking both of us, covering us as I turned to her, already hard, and her lips slid to the bottom. The sound of her gagging on my dick was drowned out by the shower. The steam clouded the place and I leaned my head against the wall, closing my eyes, just enjoying the moment. She licked the tip and walked away from me. Then, she slipped her hands through her own wet tits until her fingers reached her fluids and brought them into her mouth, making sure she sucked her fingertips until there was nothing left but her wrinkled fingers due to the scalding water.
I lifted her up by her hair, switched places with her, and put her up against the wall. I grabbed her hips and lifted her up until she was hovering in the air. I held her with one hand while guiding my dick into it. It slipped easily into her. Thrust after thrust, I didn't stop, despite the water getting into my eyes. She was tight and it just made everything even better. I felt her muscles squeezing around my length, reacting every time I entered her, and her moans got lost beneath the walls that surrounded us.
Her back stood against the wall and only her head leaned back or sometimes fell on my shoulders when she needed to release a long moan. The hair hid the eyes behind a curtain of strands, a few of them gluing themselves to the fleshy and moist lips.
"Don't stop, please." She said, for the first time begging for more.
She scratched my back as she held onto me and we both heard each other's hearts beating. I don't know how long we had been in it when she came, moaning louder, her muscles squeezing to the point of me losing control and landing her on the ground, pushing her head until she got on her knees. Not even 10 seconds passed when the thick white liquid hit her left cheek, nose and even forehead. The water dropped on her face, mixing with the fluids and carrying them down.
"I needed this." She let go, still with her mouth open and her eyes closed.
"I think we both needed it." I answered her and I had a laugh.
We both stayed there for a few more minutes. I took the opportunity to spread the bath gel, which was in a package in the right corner, over my body. It had a delicate strawberry scent and could also be used on the hair. We got out of the bath and sat on the benches. I took one of the towels that were on the pile next to the wall and wrapped it around my hip. Drops of water were still running down my body and I grabbed another towel to wrap around my hair.
"What did they say?" Elisa asked me, "The velvet coat guy talked about me, didn't he?"
"He did. He said he was happy that you had a team again," I replied, thinking about how I was going to tell her that we were supposed to become hunters again, especially normal ones, "Don't freak out, but we have a plan and I don't think you'll like it."
"What?" She
asked me right away.
"We need to stay low-profile. We're supposed to be back to normal Hunters. At least as a front while we go on some extra missions. Well, we'll have to take on one mission or another in front of other Hunters, but not much more than that. I know you don't want to be Hunter again but do it for me. For the whole group, for Ashen who's in the hospital, do it because you believe in the mission." I told her, trying to decode what she was thinking but she remained impavid and serene, "Apparently, they think what happened today was just a riot by Maggie and some friends. They don't suspect us. We need to stay in plain sight."
"What if they recognize me?"
"We're rank C, Elisa. No one there will recognize you. I know it's hard. You've been working in the shadows too long, with no rules, but I told you, we're a team, we work together."
"You know it's not something I like, but you're right. If you think it's the best plan, I'll do it. But I can't promise I'll have the patience to put up with all the shit. If there's one thing I learned when I was Hunter, it's that most of them are impulsive and idiots."
"Fair enough. Be yourself." I said to her, "We'll have a new member. A former colleague of mine."
"And can she be trusted? You're sure about that? Maybe it's not the best decision," she said, coming closer to me.
"You're not jealous, are you? I didn't expect that from you, Elisa." I told her and laughed, holding her hand, "She can be trusted. You don't have to worry. I think you'll like her. Although she likes to spend hours reading or sleeping, she's also very much like you, if she has something to say, she says it straight away."
"I trust you. I hope you know what you're doing." She said and kissed me.
Her lips were still wet, and she was naked. When she got up to grab a towel, I noticed that she had the seat mark on her round ass.
