by Sam Sea
They found them. Took their time. Not all that smart after all.
He thought about opening the door but he feared it would make too much noise.
There is no good way to do this...only one way...In an hour, it might be too late. With more people around, what are my chances? And there is no guarantee that the army will be able to find this place, no guarantee that if they do, they will manage it without the shooting, without killing the kids in the crossfire? No, I am all those kids have…I am the best they have.
He took a deep breath, then another.
Do I go slow or fast? For a second he panted for air, but then steadied his mind. Nice and slow, don’t be stupid… nice and slow.
He waited to hear the sound of the voice occupy the air and went slow and opened the door as quietly he could. The voice got quiet and below everyone turned around and looked up, and who ever didn’t have a gun in his or her hands, reached for it.
He kneeled up and pressed himself against the wooden beam which, at best, could only protect half of his side, and only against the firepower of low intensity
In the space below, he could only spot three kidnappers, their guns already zoomed in on him. From the corner of his eyes, he knew they were powerful enough not just to blow away the wooden beam but to blow a hole in the cottage roof, after passing right through him.
But his rifle was already pointed toward the man standing in front of the kids, the one he thought he heard talking, the one he thought was their leader.
"You move! And I’ll blow your head off!" Derran eerie yell froze the air. "You do not move an inch!" He commanded again to the man whose helmet still covered most of his face, whose hands were raised halfway in the air, indicating to everyone to be still.
“They can shoot you before you pull the trigger…” Yes, that was the voice he heard, that was the leader.
"You better tell everyone to relax. I'll start to waste all of you before they drill a hole in my shield." He lied about the shield.
“You have no shield.”
“You calling me a liar? Who do you think I am? I also didn’t have a scanner to track your ass down, right? How did you ever think you can get away with this? You must be the stupidest assholes I ever met. I do not have a shield…? Well, if that’s what you think…one way to find, no?”
“Well, it does not even matter. We have enough power to break through any shield.”
“Sure, sure you do…They certainly can try.” Derran squeezed the trigger half way. “But I’ve already pulled the trigger, and if I let it go, live or die, my shot will find you.”
He could hear other guns being re-checked again, saw how three of the kidnappers started slowly to spread around, still locking their guns on him.
The man would not answer, his hands still folded in the air.
“The real question you have to ask yourself is if one of your men does not fancy you very much, if one of them has a problem with you, if one of them would not mind seeing you dead…”
“You do not need to worry about my men-“
“I am not the one that is or should be worried. But you, you should. The way they move from one leg to another, waging the situation, thinking… calculating. Because you and they all know, if they start shooting, you know who will die first.”
“Everyone just take it easy…” the man was urging.
“We all will probably die,” Derran continued “since I have so much explosive stripped on me that after I blow up, I’ll make a crater in here large enough to look like a space missile hit you. ” As he spoke, he unbuttoned with his free hand part of his jacket revealing a hand grenade there. A single grenade could not do so much damage, but they didn’t need to know he had only one.
As the men below started to process his words, Derran considered the threat of the two men outside, and how easy it would be for them to get through the window and flank him from behind.
"Wait, wait...I am sure we can work something out...Nobody needs to die today."
“That really depends if you want to listen or shoot…”
“So what do we do?” The man asked.
“You need to let those kids go!" Derran threw a half a glance at them. They were tied with ropes, but none of them seemed bleeding or hurt for that matter. “The only reason you still live is because they are still alive.”
“Just take it easy. Nobody needs to die today.”
"I bet that is the smartest thing you said in your whole life... Take your helmet off. I want to see you."
With one hand, the man slowly took the thing off his head.
His face was thin, sunken with penetrating sparks of the eyes, permanently fixed on Derran and his every twitch. A man way too young to be standing there in charge, yet his face lines so deep.
“So much pain, so much suffering, for what?” Derran muttered quietly to himself before pulling himself together and announcing in a firmer voice. “I can’t let these kids die here… But if they do, I do not plan to write home about it.”
Their leader suddenly chuckled. “Just tell me, since when does the empire send kids to do man’s job?”
“Since when do brave men of Vazz kidnap kids?”
“Well, you will be glad to know I am not from Vazz.” He saw the leader cast a quick and nervous look toward the back. A brunet was there standing behind the kids, her hands on a neuron gun pointed at them.
“It seems I am pointing the gun at the wrong person,” Derran said and shifted the gun to the woman who stood behind the kids, pressing the release button with his pinky and re-locking his shot on her.
“Maybe you don’t mind dying, but can you live with those dearest to you to die for you? What a bastard would that make you?”
“And you, what kind of bastard are you? You rather have these kids die than be saftely taken away?”
A ransom, that’s all this is about… they want them alive…
“Hell, if they are so stupid to be caught, I should probably shoot them myself. What I won’t do, as I said earlier is write home about it. They go nowhere! I am ready! Lived too long as it is!”
The man’s hands were instantly raised a bit higher, his posture became even more tense. But his voice was still cool. “Just relax solider. I’ve already told you that nobody needs to die tonight, okay…everyone just relax. I am sure we can work something smart out. By the way you, you sound familiar, have we met before?”
“No, I am quite sure we have not…look fella', I feel bad for you, but you better tell your folks to put down the guns. I will drop your lady there, then you. You know you cannot stop that from happening.”
“Yeah, and your kids and you will be next. You know you can’t prevent that. Look, you sound like an honest guy, fighting this hard for these kids here, risking your life for them. That is…profound. Especially since I know who they are, and I know what they are worth. I am sure we can work something out. ”
“What do you mean you know who they are?”
“Kids from rich families, kids from major Houses of the empire…We know all, all right?”
Derran knew that Siya and Bardon were not from rich families, and the House Fkiss belonged to was nowhere rich enough to pay a hefty ransom. Everybody knew that. That information didn’t come from the kids. Somebody else talked, maybe someone even in the army.
“I don’t think you have your facts straight, you got the wrong kids. But besides…I don’t have any money on me…”
“Yeah, but we are sure you can call someone who does.”
“Sure, I can do that… Sure I can. And in ten minutes, while I am stretching negotiations with you and a person who is going to pay, the army special units are going to land here right on top of you. And then you won’t have no options of not anyone dying tonight.
“Get real! If you really want to live, you better leave now… You still have your lives and plenty of time to get away.”
“Well, I cannot do that. But at least it seems you are an honest guy…And I know you do not
want to kill anyone either…You could have waited for some of us to fall asleep, could have tried to kill us all by nightfall…”
If I had my father’s sword, if my rifle had a silent mode, if there was no snow, if…No need to think about that now…
“I know why you didn’t. I know you are a veteran, a soldier who saw too much of the killings, too much of blood being spilled. I know you saw too much of death.”
“Ten of my fifteen boys cut to pieces by your droids …...Most of what remained of them I had to scrap off my face. But you are not taking these ones with you…” The gun really didn’t even need to be pointed at the woman’s head anymore. If his cramping finger let go of the trigger, her head would be no more. Together with him.
“Yeah, and twenty thousand of my town’s folks got torched to the ground by your bombs, everyone I knew…And now, now we are not allowed to use humanoids to help us survive? Do you know what that means for the planet like this? We are starving here, man! Our children are starving!”
“Why didn’t you say so right from the start? I’ll share half of my dinner plate with you. And I’ll throw in my dessert to sweeten the pot.”
“Gripac?” One of his man, the one that was right underneath Derran, called him, asking for a command to shoot. Obviously his men were getting nervous.
“Well, nice to meet you Gripac…I am Derran, the last man you might ever see.” He tried to interrupt the thoughts he saw clearly sliding away from him, dreading what will come next.
“You know, your voice really sounds very familiar…” Gripac started in a slow voice, his eyes never leaving Derran’s “…like the voice in that stupid video bit about that butcher of Vazz…”
Derran didn’t like where that was going. “Look, if this is really just about the money, then you leave. You leave right now. And let these kids be. And I give you my word that I will drop here in this very cottage or in any other place of your choosing, one million emperor’s credit within next twenty days.”
“Yeah, I can trust you to do that? Besides these kids are worth much more than that.”
“Of course they are! They are worth more than all the money can buy…Worth more than old soldiers like you and I put together. But that is all the money I can get hold off, and that is all the credits you can get…So choose, choose now, before someone else does not do it for you.”
Gripac thought for a second, then two. “And you say you will not shoot after us, and you will honor our deal?”
“Yes, you have my word. You have the word of an old soldier. I'll give you your money...But know this, with that money I am not just buying lives of those kids laying there...And everyone else in here for that matter. With that money, your fighting days, your raids, your killings...It all stops. With those credits, it is all over. Those are your last credits!"
The silence lasted with no end. "You see…” Gripac suddenly interrupted it. “Nobody has to die tonight, Derran.” The man even smiled at him.
“I sure hope so.” Derran said hearing the noise to his back.
Gripac slowly lowered his hands and waved to the others to do the same.
“Two of you go and warm up the engines.” His instructions followed..
“Better tell that to the men in the room behind me. I can hear them and they are getting awfully close to fucking the spaceshit out of our deal.”
“Maraz, Wiz! Get out of there! You heard me! Go out and take the cover of the transporter! You come through that door, I swear, I’ll shoot you myself.”
“Okay, boss.” The grouching response followed.
Even as all of them left, and he heard the transporter lifting off, Derran didn’t want to risk going out of the cottage. He gave his spare gun to Fkiss, and they just set down and waited for another hour before the army could track his locator beam to come and rescue them.
“Why did you do it that way?” Siya asked him in the end, as they were being led to an army air transporter.
“There are a lot of things that you can do only once…And if you do not do them right, well…you cannot redo them…Nobody dies tonight. I like that. It seems as I was putting ideas in my head, he was putting some in mine.”
Two days later, they were pulled back from the planet, and send back to their training camp.
On their arrival, Derran asked the commission to talk privately with Senator Sulivaro.
He got a secured private link to him, all the way to the Capital where the senator was located.
“Senator Sulivaro, this is Derran. I have a favor to ask…”
“Yes…I saw your report, entirely. I guess I know what this is about.”
“One and a half million credits, I gave you a few months back. You know all the circumstances about it. Of that money, I need one million of it back. You can transfer it to the following account...”
“Sergeant… I… We need to talk, in person, not just about this-“
“We can talk all you want, Senator, but I need this money now. No ifs, no buts, no citing any kind of spaceshit regulations, no nothing.”
Both men stared at each other for a moment.
“I gave my word,” Derran offered an explanation, but his words were still cold and threatening. “And it will take more than a million of those stinky credits for me to even consider breaking them.”
C
hapte r 9 - The Bar Fight
In twenty days, Derran used the first free Friday night, to run to Spacesies, the small town next to the Space Port. He chose to enter the first bar he saw, and then was startled right there on the entrance.
"What are you kids doing here?" Derran asked as he stepped in, seeing Wrankies, Fkiss and Siya sitting around a cheap table, drinking from a big pitch of golden beer. "Aren’t you too young for that? Plus, you are getting up tomorrow to start the last part of your training, and..." Derran stopped himself, then turned his head around thinking.
"Oh, well. After everything you've been through during the last year, I guess you deserve it." he said as he set down next to them.
He waived to the waiter asking for a double shot of the locally brewed bourbon.
“Where have you been, Sergeant? You’ve been gone for a long time.” Wrankies, noticing how relaxed Derran became, decided to inquire.
Derran nailed the shot that just arrived, and asked for another. “You really want to know?”
The tone of Derran’s voice implied there was a lot more to it. But Wrankies failed to register it. “Yes. Of course. Siya was just saying that you probably went back to the planet to honor your deal.”
Derran looked at Siya. She decided not to say anything, noting that something is off.
“No, she was wrong, and if you betted, she lost.”
They all chuckeled at that and the girl admitted that she will pay the next round.
“Actually I asked a friend of mine to do that in my place” Derran’s voice was too cold. Siya knew it. “I had some other things to do.”
“Come on, tell us, did you go and see your lady? Where did you go?” Siya put a hand on Wrankies, trying to tell him not to press for it.
“I had some unfinished business to do.” The second glass of bourbon was on the table, but Derran just stared at it.
“Yeah, you want to collaborate on that, Sergeant?” Fkiss didn’t catch Siya’s look to keep quiet. “Come on, Sergeant, we are war-bodies now…”
“Well, if you put it like that, maybe you have a right to know…”
Derran down the shot, and then took Fkiss’s half full glass out of his hand and emptied it as well. He then poured himself a glass of beer and empited it too.
“Who says beer does not go down with bourbon?”
They all knew then that the things were off, and nobody dared to chucke again. “I went to… to see a person that I needed to clear something with…a guy that planted that bomb in my closet.”
“You – You found him? You found who it was?” Fkiss asked in disbelief.
“Sure, sure I did. It wasn’t that
difficult to do. I mean all that spaceshit I told you about leaving it to the commission, it was all to get you and them off my back. There was really never a chance for me to let that one go. That kid died because of me. Too many people died around me.”
Wrankies did not even think to encourage him to talk any more, but words came out nevertheless. “Once I set down and thought about it, I figured out the possibilities, what to look for… I asked some of my old friends in the army intelligence to give me scans of the skies during that period. There were only supply vessels docking on the space port during that period. I thought for a while what if someone landed a small space ship directly on the planet... But those vessels are rare and expensive, and didn’t fit the profile of a killer… “
They looked at him, not fully understanding it. “Such an expensive traveling arrangement would imply that the assassin was very professional, highly skilled, which we all know, he was not. The explosive he used, my size, positioning, I mean, if I was any shorter, that could only give me one nasty haircut, you know… A dumbass…”
“So, I thought what a dumbass would do. I paid a visit to the captain of the supply ship that came during that time. At first he didn’t want to collaborate on his recent passenger list, but I kind of persuaded him to change his mind.”
Derran poured himself another glass. “So, after some persuasion, he told me who paid him five thousand credits to hitch a ride and not be on a passenger list, and then… I went to find that lucky guy.”
“And…?”
“And, he was lucky no more.” Derran emptied another glass. “I found him in the same shitty space station where the captain left him, whoring and drinking away like there is no tomorrow…”
“Was there…Was there a tomorrow for him?”
“After killing Virkle, should there be…? Besides, do you think that was the last time he would have tried to do something that stupid again? How many would he kill next time?”
Derran finished the last of the beer. “Well, that shit is not good for you anyway,” he murmured before continuing. “But, before that had happened, he was very interesting in opening up. Strange how much even the smallest of chainsaws can open a man’s mouth.”
