by Tom Harem
"Kendra, can we talk?" Lipa asked her.
"No. You had no right to decide for me. Let's go." She answered and got in the back of the van.
"Give her time," I said to Lipa.
"I know. Let's get going. I hope she cools down over time. She wasn't supposed to find out."
We kept the same seats in the van. The journey was carried out in silence. Lipa was just focused on the road. I texted Kendra halfway along the way, asking how she was, but she didn't answer me.
We went back to Lipa's garage. Once again, the transition was made quietly. It was as if death had fallen on us and no one knew how to deal with the afterlife. Nothing else happened during that day. We returned to our base. I told Tom what had happened but skipped the mission that had been given to us. The day finished with the shadow of all that had happened hovering over our heads.
Chapter XX
Three days had passed since we were at the top of the mountain. Those were long, exhausting days that emotionally drained us. Besides some missions done to not lose our shape I still had to deal with Kendra being apathetic. She had received several messages from Lipa but ignored them all. She spoke very little to us except during battles or the hours we spent arguing and planning how we would get in and blow up the building, aided by Lipa over the phone. We decided that we were pretending to be fruit transporters, using one of her vans and that someone had dispatched us to that address. We talked about what was at stake. It wasn't just the bullets. It was also the possibility of us finally striking a powerful blow against the Reapers.
It was time. Saturday morning. It was still 9 am when we left the base garage. I sent a message to my mom. I wanted her to know that I was okay and that I was going to visit her the following week. Grey clouds peered through the still overcast sky. The sun was sleeping and so were most cities. Even the rich city was half-dormant with only a few of the coffees open, the lights still not lit, and the places empty except for two or three early risers. The highway was roughly the same. The lamps along both sides were still lit even if no more than five cars were driving alongside us. The grass on the prairie slopes wavered with the wind gusts.
"If something happens to me... I want you to know how much I love you." Maggie confessed as we were leaving that town...
"Nothing will happen to anyone. Cut the crap." Elisa replied.
"What if it does?" Maggie counterattacked.
"Let's try not to think so negative," Victoria said.
"Girls, we're going to make it. Just follow the plan."
"You're very confident," Maggie told me.
"I trust us." I told them, "It's a unique opportunity for us. We won't fail."
They smiled and said I was right. They talked about how easy it would be to get in and out, and how no one would notice us. The truth was that I wasn't so sure. I wouldn't admit it to them, but I was also afraid of what could happen. All it took was a guard to stare back, use the wrong time to go to the bathroom, anything out of the ordinary to catch us and raise the alarm.
Lipa was waiting for us in front of her warehouse. She was holding a cigarette with her left hand. She had black gloves, a scarf, and a leather jacket. The smoke was dancing in the rotten air until it dissipated in the mist. We all came in through the front door. The atmosphere was heavy and scarce. Kendra, Elisa, and Vic took the lead while I stayed behind to talk to Lipa.
"Are you better?"
"Yeah, I don't have time to be miserable either. I had some big business days earlier this week. A huge headache. Let's just take care of this so I can get back into the business."
"Are you going to ignore everything that happened? With your sister? With our group?"
"Our? I'm not in your group. I don't even intend to be. What happened is history. I'm going to help you with this, and then I'm going to go back to my life."
"What do you mean, Lipa?"
"I have had enough. Ever since I started hanging out with you, I've only been getting weaker. It's over. Let's hurry up." She said, trying not to look at me.
"What about your sister? You're leaving her?" I asked her, as we walked down the hallway that led to the garage.
"To her, I already did. Does it make a difference?"
"Maybe more than you think," I answered, just before we joined the other girls.
I helped her open the rusty door once again. Only two vans were in the dusty garage. We held the same seats as before. Lipa and I wore white T-shirts and trousers, both with the custom-made fruity symbol in the upper right corner. She had it all mapped out in detail. She was more responsible than usual. There was no sarcasm or all that mischief that characterized her. Just the desire to finish it as quickly as possible. She started the engine and hit the road.
The streets, even in that place forgotten by the rest of the world, were empty. The market had already opened. The little natural light that shone there, at those hours, amidst the haze of the factories, which did not rest even on weekends, was enough to enlighten the whole place. Not even a dozen people headed there while two others left, full bags already in hand. The smell of bread and hot cakes flowed out of a couple of nearby cafes and spun through the air until it reached the van.
"How about a short stop? Just to get us something to eat?"
"Haven't you eaten?" Lipa asked me.
"Yes, but not much. Isn't it better to stuff ourselves with food before a mission like this?"
"Being Hunter has fewer and fewer perks." She said and stopped the van in a nearby alley. The aroma still lingered there but was already very dull.
"I'm going with your sister."
"Don't tell her what I told you. She doesn't need to know. It's better if that's the case."
"I didn't think to tell her. It's something you have to tell her yourself if you have the guts."
"And I do! I just think it's best to walk away without saying anything. It wouldn't be the first time."
"Do whatever you want. I am going to call her."
I jumped out of the van. The wind blew and froze my bones. I could barely move my fingers anymore. Damn it. I had no idea it was going to be so cold or I had dressed up a lot more than a simple black sweater and a black cloak similar to what Ashen had given me. Tom had informed us that he should be healthy enough to leave the hospital within a week. This mission was also for him, to make him proud, to show him that we had not given up. I also wanted to see the building explode. I wanted to dedicate the victory, even if it was a small one, to my father. He who had never given up even when everyone opposed him.
I opened the back door of the van. Elisa was the first to ask what had happened for us to stop so early. I told her I was going to buy us something to eat and asked Kendra to come with me. She was dressed all in black, with eyeliner and dark circles under her eyes, like she was going to a funeral and I just didn't know if it was hers or if it was the funeral of her relationship with her sister.
"I'm going to smoke then," Elisa said.
"Do you smoke too?" I asked her.
"Not really, but I've always smoked before a dangerous mission. It helps me calm down." She answered me.
Kendra and I crossed the crosswalk and entered the pastry shop next to an old tavern with the name written on a wooden sign above the entrance. There were two girls in the corner. They were drinking a cup of coffee and each ate a slice of chocolate cake that was still hot and melting on its sides.
"Good morning, what are you looking for?" A gentleman, already in his 50s, asked us. He had a soft smile with a steel tooth on the bottom of his mouth.
"It's six of those still warm loaves of bread and six of these cupcakes," I told him and pointed to the showcase where there were a dozen vanilla cakes with thin caramel linings and chocolate chippings on top of them.
He bagged the slices of bread and put the cakes in a little box. Then he pulled the Hunters' ATM version out of a drawer on his side. I ran my Hunter app through the code bar and the money was deducted from my account. We thanked him and he wished us a g
ood day. When we left, two young men, scrawny and with visible facial bones, smoked two cigarettes outside the tavern. Their hands were swollen, trembling, and their eyes were empty and lifeless. They had no cheeks and the skin appeared to be being pulled in until there was not much left. It was a sad sight, almost haunting, because I knew that could have been my future if I hadn't been accepted at the Hunters Academy. It wasn't that there was no other job for me, something I could learn to do, it was just that there was nothing that I wanted, not even half as much as I wanted to be a Hunter. And if I didn't fight until I lacked the strength and the breath, for my dream, how could I live my future knowing that it was only the remains that were left of what I had lost?
"Are you all right, James?" Kendra asked me, watching me standing there, with the hot bread bag getting cold.
"Yes, you know I have this habit of getting distracted." I said, "What about you? We haven't had many opportunities to speak these past few days."
"I'm fine. I am only to blame for my sister being a murderer, a gun dealer and one of the most wanted criminals on this continent."
"Do you really believe that?"
"She sacrificed herself for me! She had no right to do so." Kendra shouted, punching the closest wall.
"Okay, true, but do you understand why she did it? She wanted all that and you didn't. Don't you think she saved you? Even if she did it for her."
"Maybe, but right now, I don't want to think about it too much."
"You may not get another chance to do it."
"What do you mean by that?" She asked me and looked at me, her black eyes scrutinizing my soul.
"It's a risky mission. Something could happen to one of us. We shouldn't go in there with regrets or unspoken words."
"And since when did you become a cheap philosopher?"
"It's one of my many sides," I answered her and came up to her. Our cold breaths, whitish as ghosts in the daylight, intermingled. I placed my free hand on her back and drove her close to me. I kissed her cold lips and bit them before I walked away, "for good luck." I told her before I headed to the crosswalk.
I still heard her trying to stifle her laughter. She followed me and we returned to the alley where they were. Maggie and Victoria were sitting on the van floor, at the edge of the back door, Lipa was smoking her cigarette and Kendra was about to finish her. Only Lipa was prepared for that cold weather.
"Damn it. You could have warned us that low temperatures were waiting for us here."
"I didn't think I'd have to. We won't be spending much time in this area either. Is everybody ready? Let's get going. There are some blankets in some of those containers. The others contain fruit."
I looked inside. Dozens of sealed boxes, according to her filled with fruit, covering the entire ample space. There was only a small square of free space, at the bottom of the van, where they had settled.
"Are we seriously taking fruit?" I asked Lipa.
"Of course. You guys are really new at this. What if they decide to peek into it? We can't get caught that easily, can we?"
"What if they see us?" Vic asked him.
"Why do you think the boxes in the entrance are taller? At most, they'll check to see if they have any fruit, really. They're not going to look in the whole van, I guess."
"You think so?" Vic asked again.
"This is no exact science. When we get there, James will text you and you'll move a few of the boxes to the middle. It should help to cover you up."
"Couldn't we do this at night?" Maggie asked, "By the way, speaking of the cold." She said it and snapped her fingers. A drop-shaped flame sprang up in her hand. We all got close to her except Lipa. The breeze heated up as we rubbed our hands and felt the heat grazing our faces.
"There was only this delivery scheduled for today. It was our only chance." Lipa answered. She tossed her cigarette on the floor and stepped on it until the smoke dissipated, "Let's go."
We stayed a few more seconds by the flames. Lipa had already climbed onto her seat and slammed the window by my side.
"We better go. We can do this. It's going to be all right." Vic said. She sighed as she climbed into the van one more time. The others followed her. I went to my seat and we got back on the road. Lipa spent the whole trip with her eyes on the road, sometimes appreciating the hills and rows that flanked both sides of the road, but never looking at me.
"We're getting there." She said after making a detour to a campsite, where a road, in the middle of nowhere, led us into a forest.
"Are you sure we're in the right place?" I asked her.
"Yeah. What better place to have an illegal lab than a place like this? Hidden from the general population?"
"You're right, but in the middle of a forest or whatever this is? It must have something to do with their master scientist's pet mania."
"What are you talking about?" Lipa asked me.
She drove through the forest's zigzags, past dead trees, dull plants, and even colorless bushes. Dozens of thick wires traversed the entire forest from one end to the other. Whatever they were leaving along the way, probably radiation, was killing the surrounding wildlife. A forest with greyish trunks and a rancid smell that stretched for tens of meters. I took advantage of the trip to explain to her why all beasts looked like insects, mentioning, over and over again, how strange it was that there weren't any animals in the area. Not alive, dead, or even mutated by the smell or the radiation. There wasn't a living soul out there.
"Strange, but it makes sense," Lipa answered me.
"I even understand him. Not the whole world domination part but the part of surrounding himself with animals when he had no one else." I told her, " I had never been through what he went through but we all had lonely moments."
"I assume so." She said, straining away from the conversation, "Look, there."
Chapter XXI
Ahead of us, just meters away, was a lab that stretched out over vast yards. With its rectangular shape and oval white roof, a car entrance on the far right, the laboratory existed in a world of its own. Nature had no domain there. Science overlapped wildlife. The sea of trees stayed behind and made room for the gravelly soil. The road widened in two directions; one for those who worked there and the other for people like us who were only there to deliver supplies. There was still a solar-panel park. The sun shone there, the golden light changing to a silver shade that reflected on the iron gates that surrounded the entire laboratory. There were two well-armed men in dark green uniforms supervising the gate. Lipa stopped near them and waited for them to meet us.
"Fruit?" One of them asked. He was bald, tattooed and kept his arm shrunk and the gun up to his chest while he was talking.
"Yes. You can confirm that if you want." Lipa answered him. Her voice didn't tremble. Neither her fingers nor her legs. She lied easily without taking her eyes off the man.
"I need to do it." He said and asked us to get out, "Open the back door."
I slid the door and strayed away from it. Sun rays snuck out among the clouds and brightened the interior of the van. The security guard peered inside and didn't suspect a thing. Then he pulled out one of the boxes, opened it and chewed one of the green apples. A trail of saliva ran down his chin goatee.
"Good shit. I'll take this one." He said and put the lid on top of the box. "Come on in."
"Wait." The other man, who had a pimple on his lower lip and an unshaven beard, said, "We must search you."
"Is it really necessary?" I said, "We don't have anything that's not allowed."
"That's up to us." The man said. His partner was delighting himself with the apple. He hadn't even peeled it off.
Luckily Lipa had warned me that that could happen, and we had hidden our weapons in a secret compartment under the floor. The man groped me from my shoulders to my knees and did the same to Elisa.
"Watch where you're touching me." She repeated it while he roamed through her body.
He returned with the other man to their cabin, still chewi
ng the apple, and with the gun by his hip.
"Too bad we can't eliminate them now." Lipa said, "Oh, well, let's do this."
"You like this, don't you? The adrenaline rush, the possibility that you might have to kill someone?" I asked her.
"I take no pleasure in killing someone. But when it must be, it must be. If I don't shoot first, the other person will. I can't hesitate." She said, driving down the asphalt road that led us to the lab basement. Two muscular men, wearing blue shorts over yellow overalls, were waiting for us at the entrance.
"Wasn't this supposed to be empty?" I asked Lipa.
"Shit. Yes, it was." She replied.
The men were walking towards us. The tip of the leather boots stepped on the concrete floor and the sound propagated throughout the warehouse. There were only shelves, empty boxes and transportation vehicles for the supplies. Every step they took was like a pinch in my heart, the strings pressing it until my heartbeat was nearly nil.
Even though I wasn't sweating, a drop slipped down from my forehead to my left cheek. My heart was racing even faster. I already had my hand by my gun when Lipa tapped my shoulder and nodded her head.
"I'll take care of this. Act normal." She said.
I didn't like to be in her hands, but she was the expert there. I couldn't risk the whole mission because of my ego. One of the men knocked on her side window and she rolled it open.
"Yes?" She said.
"We're here to help you with the cargo." The man said. Her partner was just a few feet away from him, staring at me.
Lipa opened the door, got out, and walked around the van.
"Isn't he coming?" The older man, with his untrimmed sideburns and wrinkled skin, asked.
"He has to call our boss and let him know we're here. He was afraid we'd get lost. But two strong men like you can do this without his help, can't you?" She asked them.
"Yes, of course. We don't need his help for anything!" The youngest replied, clenching his hands and flexing his muscular shoulders in front of her.
