A thought of possible viral infection passed through Reiji’s mind, but he ignored it. If the man was infected, then there was little Reiji would be able to do about it, out here in the middle of fucking nowhere. When he returned to civilization and paid off his bounty, if they allowed him to, then he would see a doctor about it. A real doctor at that. Not some back-alley abortionist playing at saving lives and healing the sick.
Reiji shut off the dim lights in the interior of the shack so they wouldn’t interfere with his night vision. That done, he took a comfortable position that afforded him a view of…nothing. He saw the dark night, tinted green, covering an expanse of wind-blasted rock and sand with nothing of interest showing itself.
Hope this doesn’t take for-fucking-ever, Reiji thought as he settled into his watch. Staring into the night seemed to have a hypnotic effect on him. The static in his vision from the night vision goggles only added to it. The desert whispered to him through the interminable wind, lulling him to complacency. Roughly five minutes seemed to pass as he watched, intently seeking out any movement at all, until someone knocked lightly on the door to the guard shack.
Shaken from his reverie, Reiji approached with Kai at the ready. The door opened and his vision greened out as a wave of heat washed over him. He reached up to remove the goggles, seeing daylight behind the silhouette of a man. His eyes adjusted quickly and J.J. looked at him from just outside the door, bathed in sunlight. Hours had passed since he’d entered the shack.
“Gavin wants everyone inside,” the other man spoke before turning and walking off towards the warehouse, hands held up to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight. Reiji flipped the night vision goggles up and then decided to remove them altogether before he followed.
In the warehouse the others were already assembled, waiting for J.J and Reiji to join them. Each man sat at the long tables intended for communal eating, silent and seemingly irritated. A quick head count showed Reiji that one man was missing. He could put a face on the man, but not a name. Was it Pedro? Definitely something beginning with a “P”. But did it really matter what his name was?
Gavin entered the room, moving slowly as he was flanked by Varg and Virgil once more. His expression was grim.
“You all fucked up,” he began. Reiji wasn’t sure where this was going.
“You let someone into our perimeter last night, and now one of you is dead because of it.” Gavin grew silent and looked around the room, glaring at each man from behind his perpetual sunglasses. “In case you didn’t know,” he finally continued after visually dressing-down each man, “Pedro is dead.” Men looked at one another suspiciously before turning their attention back to Gavin.
“He was found just before dawn with an arrow through his neck. This,” Gavin reached into a pocket and produced a wicked looking arrowhead, barbed and spiked to cause maximum tissue damage should it be removed from a struck foe. “Was what did him in. Anyone recognize it?”
There was silence. If the arrowhead was supposed to hold some significance, like a calling card of some hunter or unit, Reiji didn’t see it. If anyone else did recognize it, they weren’t saying anything. Reiji couldn’t remember any of the men in Gavin’s crew carrying a bow, though it would have been possible to hide a well-built one or even to drive the arrow through a man’s neck with your hands.
“I didn’t think so,” Gavin continued. “I hope for your sakes that there are no more errors made by our security detail.” He looked over the group of men again, his gaze seeming to linger on each man.
“In better news,” Gavin’s voice shifted from angry to almost happy. “We’ve found what we came for and we’re leaving tonight.” That proclamation raised a chorus of approval. That meant everyone was one significant step closer to getting paid. Just a few days hiking back out of the desert and a few weeks on the transport truck and they’d be home. Richer for the experience and the reward.
“And what did you find?” Reiji’s question pierced the air like a knife into a balloon. All grew silent and heads turned towards him. Gavin slowly turned his head towards Reiji, his facial features speaking momentarily of annoyance before returning to their usual stone.
“Data.” A single word answer. Insufficient in Reiji’s mind. He had risked his life several times now and would like to know why he had done so. Aside from the promise of financial reward.
“What kind of data?”
Gavin tilted his head downward, looking at Reiji over the top rim of his sunglasses. Eyes wide and jaw muscles working.
“Important data.” A two word answer this time. Fair enough, Reiji changed his mind. If he didn’t want anyone to know what it was, that was his business. As long as Reiji was paid what was owed, he could tolerate this bullshit until the crew returned to civilization.
“For the rest of the day, there will be one sentry posted outside of the warehouse. The rest of you are free to spend the remainder of your time here as you see fit, so long as you remain indoors and keep your weapons at the ready.” Gavin looked back to the rest of the assembly. “Before we leave, there will be a small gift shared with all of you. As a show of my appreciation for your hard work.”
Men cheered lightly and slapped each other on the back and shoulder, before erupting with speculation as to what the gift would be. Gavin turned and left the room, the twins only a step behind him.
DARKNESS.
Finally, Reiji thought, as the sun descended behind the jagged horizon to the west. The mountains seeming to rise like the teeth of some monstrous demon as it closed its mouth on the fire raging within. That’s not bad, he thought. I might have to write that down sometime. But enough of this baking in the heat bullshit.
Reiji’s turn as the lookout couldn’t end soon enough. He’d relieved the man before him sometime in the late afternoon. The man had been red with sunburn and soaked through with sweat despite staying to the shadows. He’d been on watch for four hours himself after replacing the man before him. Shifts changing when relieved every four hours. The order chosen by Gavin.
The brutal sun moved with the speed of an old cripple or perhaps a sadist intent on punishing the earth below and all who dwelled thereupon, for having the sheer brass, for daring to crawl beneath its gaze. Slowly and with purpose as it baked the world from on high, intent on burning all below to ash.
From his high vantage it was easy for Reiji to see how primitive man might have thought the sun to be some angry, wrathful, God. Beneath its oppressive watch, skin burned and lips cracked. Dry eyes teared against the heat and glare and ever present dry wind. It might have ultimately been the source of all life in the world through a chain of events beginning with photosynthesis and cascading up through the food chain, but it was a cruel master. Demanding and taking life in exchange for that which it gave. Blood sacrifice.
Despite his discomfort, in the time he’d been on watch Reiji had remained vigilant. Seated on his pack for insulation from the hot rocks beneath him and hidden from the view of anyone approaching the installation by a small outcropping of the same. A nice spot in the shade as the sun finally descended. Still hot as Vulcan’s dick though, he concluded as he wiped sweat from his brow.
He wondered briefly who Vulcan was, and why his dick would be so hot. It was a phrase he’d picked up from his father, hearing it often as a kid. But he’d never asked about it. Just started using it as well.
Reiji had maintained his watch without pause for what had surely been hours on end. Whoever had killed Pedro might still be out there, and Reiji would be damned if he would let that same person, or people, or thing, or whatever the fuck it was, get him as well.
There had been a moment when he was sure he was watching someone or something slowly crawl over an outcropping of dark brown rocks, taking in the entirety of the Cent-Com warehouse below. Reiji had remained motionless as he strained his eyesight to watch. Without thought his hand had slowly crept closer and closer to Kai’s hilt. As if a sword would have done him any good at that range.
The shape blurred with shadows on the rock and disappeared altogether as Reiji watched. He shook his head, unsure if he had actually seen something or not. He had been given no way to communicate with the men in the warehouse. With no way to warn them that there might be a sniper out there on that particular rise of barren rocks.
A large bird took to the skies from nearby the suspect shadows as he watched. It wasn’t so uncommon out here that it was completely out of place. But what had set it to flight? A man spooking it, or the promise of better weather and prey elsewhere?
Reiji thought hard over his options. He could always ignore it, and chalk up the movement seen to his overactive imagination. If it was something that actually did present a danger to the men below, he couldn’t claim to particularly care. He was one to take pride in a job well done, but if some sniper shot one or two of that bunch in the warehouse, it would be no great loss. Shit, the world might be a better place for it.
If he was lucky, maybe it would be the one who always smelled like he’d just taken a shit and forgotten how to clean himself after. Or the fucking mouthbreather. His actual name escaped Reiji, but it was as if the man wasn’t aware that he had nostrils through which to inhale. No great loss at all if someone were to shoot those two down.
And it wasn’t as if a man had stood on top of the rocks and openly identified himself before challenging Reiji to a duel in the burning sands beneath the sun. A fight with blades crossing, having been called out, was something he would have eagerly accepted to break up the boredom. But if he had seen something, and he that was a big if, he thought to himself, and there was a sniper out there, it would be far better to remain hidden than to potentially expose himself to hostile fire.
Running around from rock to rock while razor sharp arrows whistled by him from some unseen place didn’t strike him as particularly fun or healthy for that matter. Yeah, if it was someone out there, fuck those guys below if they couldn’t take him out.
And what if he finds me as well?
Reiji couldn’t help but ask himself. An arrow might be buried in his chest before he was even aware that he was in danger. Of course, there were always precautions. The clothing he wore would stiffen under the impact and provide some protection, but that was mostly a warding against low quality blades. A decent blade would cut through it, and even shitty arrowheads stood a good chance of punching through. Once more he regretted not being able to bring all of his gear with him.
In various stashes placed around the capital city, Reiji had armor and weapons. The weapons were purely back-up. Low quality compared to the matched blades. But there was armor there that would stand up to anything short of monomolecular edges.
No point in wishing, he mused as he daydreamed that he was clad in his best protection. Flexible body armor that was easily concealed under clothing that would stop blades and arrows alike. Some elbow grease would allow nanoforged weapons through, and a projected forcefield would cut right through the armor and his flesh beneath. But he couldn’t remember the last time he’d even heard someone claim they’d seen a projected forcefield weapon. And the climate control built into the armor would prove to be a serious luxury right about then.
No, there was nothing he could on that front if he was spotted and some unseen sharpshooter chose to lay down a few rounds on him. But there was at least one thing he could do.
Reiji shifted his weight slowly, staying low and scanning the horizon for movement as he moved his pack from underneath himself. The going was slow, as he refused to look down at the pack and potentially miss his would-be assassin popping from behind cover to bear down on him.
After a minute or so of fumbling through his pack, Reiji found what he had sought. The medical kit. It contained a myriad of small first aid items. Sterile bandages, painkillers, scalpels. But most importantly to men in his line of work were the pre-filled nanobot syringes. The same the farmer’s simpleton had asked about. Each had a different tactile pattern on the surface, so that a user could still identify what the purpose of each syringe was when unable to look or even if blinded.
Reiji found the trauma syringe by the feel of it. He slowly raised it into his line of sight so he could confirm that he held the right one. He paused for a moment to think it over. The syringe had not been cheap. In fact it had cost him more than most people in the capital city earned in a few months. But what was the cost of the syringe weighed against his life?
When he approached the situation from that angle, there really was point in debate. He could always buy more of them. Or at least he could until the supply ran out. Reiji had heard rumors that the equipment used to manufacture them for Cent-Com had begun to fail in the past year or so. But with the promised payday from this job, he’d be able to bathe in the fuckers if he wanted to.
Without taking his eyes off of the rocks where he thought he’d seen the movement, Reiji pulled the cap from the syringe and lowered it to his thigh. There was a burning sensation as it pierced his skin and then a strange warmth flowing through his leg as the nanobots entered his bloodstream and began seeking physical trauma to repair.
Slowly, he sat back onto his pack. Maintaining his watch. And seeing absolutely nothing.
As the sun finally began to set, a lone figure emerged from the door of the warehouse and stepped into the parking lot near the assembled trucks. Trucks that would not see use anytime soon. Gavin and his crew would be leaving this place the same way they had arrived. On foot.
His gait gave him away before he reached into his jacket and produced a small scanner. After looking into it for a few seconds and looking about him, Gavin looked up from the scanner and directly at Reiji’s position. He put the scanner back into his jacket and began approaching. Reiji wondered for a brief moment if the man was going to take a turn on watch. Unlikely, he concluded as he watched his employer approach.
Gavin paused and looked up at Reiji, as if calculating the time it would take him to ascend the rocky slope and reach his subordinate. Reiji watched the gears spinning in the man’s head. If he wanted Reiji to descend the slope, all he had to do was give the signal. But if he didn’t, let that fucker climb up here, Reiji thought.
On cue, Gavin shook his head and began his ascent.
It took him several minutes to rise up the steep slope and climb the last few feet up the rock face to Reiji’s position. When he made it to the top he gave Reiji a disapproving look, as if to say ‘why here?’ Reiji said nothing but looked expectantly back at Gavin.
The man said nothing either but began fishing through his pockets, hands emerging with a cigarette in one and a lighter in the other. He lit the cigarette and motioned for Reiji to stand next to him and look at something in the distance. Reiji rose from his seated position with Kai across his lap, grabbing the still-sheathed sword casually in one hand as he did so.
Was it possible that he had spotted someone out there within a few seconds of ascending to Reiji’s perch? Had the scanner shown him something that mortal eyes could not see? After Reiji had spent hours looking for whoever had killed Pedro and seen nothing.
Gavin took a drag of the cigarette and continued pointing at something in the distance. Reiji wasn’t quite sure what he was supposed to be seeing, but kept looking for the silhouette of a man, kneeling with bow drawn and aimed squarely at him. Reiji stepped closer to the man to gain the same perspective as him. He saw nothing but sand and jagged rocks stretching from one horizon to the next. A cleared path that passed for a road wound back and forth among them and disappeared in the distance, but it remained as bare as ever.
Gavin continued smoking his cigarette without saying anything, finally lowering the hand he had bee
n pointing with. Reiji turned to look at him just in time to see Gavin raising something new in his hand toward Reiji’s face. Casually, but quickly. The motion of something that had been well-rehearsed.
He instantly tried to shift his weight backward, to move out of the way of whatever it was. But it was too late. A stinging cloud sprayed out of some device held in Gavin’s palm. Reiji moved to swing Kai upwards, but his hands were numb and the blade fell from them. His strength fled from him with a speed he wouldn’t have thought possible.
Reiji attempted to take a step towards Gavin and send him sprawling down the jagged slope before he could finish the job he’d come to do. Gavin casually stepped back out of reach as Reiji wobbled like a man on the verge of alcohol poisoning. He drew the broadsword he carried at his waist and held it, point down, in one hand.
“You know what your problem is?” Gavin asked as he placed his left hand on Reiji’s right shoulder, turning the hired muscle to face him. “You’re too smart Reiji.” He answered his own question. An insufferable trait that had driven Reiji to kill at least one man in the past.
Reiji opened his mouth to answer, but even his tongue was betraying him now. Some powerful narcotic coursed through his system, virtually paralyzing him.
“And that makes you ask questions,” Gavin continued. “But maybe if you were as smart as you think you are, then you’d keep your mouth shut. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
He stared at Reiji’s face, contorting in anger and confusion and pain as the narcotic poison worked its way through his system. Reiji tried to reach up. To grab this motherfucker by his throat and squeeze the life out of him, but his arms just wouldn’t work. Gavin chuckled at the sight.
“And beyond that,” Gavin started to speak again. “You’re just too good with those blades. What if you decided to turn them against me, and the boys weren’t around to deal with you?” Gavin shrugged and motioned in the air with the blade in his hand.
The Way of Death Page 14
