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Chapter 49
By Agent Havoc
« I’m going to catch up with an old friend .»
By now, the attention of all of his newfound companions was on him. They all seemed rather uncomfortable with Darian’s reaction and he couldn’t blame any of them. After all, none of the people here, besides Anika, knew that he had a history with Hihori Yodama, the infamous young leader of the Syndicate. None of them knew how personnal this business had become to him.
« What do you mean , going to catch up with an old friend? » asked Talehn, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
Darian dropped Tetsuhara like a bag of potatoes and looked at the Ether technician straight in the eyes.
« It means that the Syndicate will be breathing down our necks, and I want them all out of our hair as soon as possible. It also means that I’ll be going off on my own again. »
« THAT IS OUT OF THE QUESTION! » screamed Anika in anger « You’re going to play the heroic lone gunman again Darian? You think you’re invincible? You can’t go off against the Syndicate by yourself and expect to survive. Are you in that much of a hurry to die? »
Everyone in this group now felt like they were in somewhere they shouldn’t be. All of them felt awkward, that much was appearent in their movements. Anika was standing her ground and looked as defiant as ever.
«No…No, I’m not in a hurry to die at all ‘Nik, but I’m going to make sure that you all have a better chance at survival… » he answered in a soft whispering tone.
« This isn’t the time to go on a personnal vendetta! You and your high and mighty priciples… You’re acting as selfishly as anybody right now by turning your back to the planet and going off in this suicidal idea of yours! »
Darian was silent for a moment and thought about it what Anika had just said. For a moment, he thought that she was right, but then, it hit him like a ton of bricks.
« No Anika, you’re wrong… Yes, i do want to settle things with Yodama, but I wouldn’t go on this hunt if Cisia’s fate didn’t depende on this…We need Cisia alive… And the Syndicate and the Ministry also want her… I’ll at least take the Syndicate off her back for awhile… Don’t act this way ‘Nik, Cisia is much more important than any of us right now, and you have to understand that…"
« But … but… » She was lost for words and he knew it…
The scarred man looked at the group that surrounded him and knew that none of them were truly qualified to take over leadership of this whole situation. He didn’t feel much like a leader himself but he had an idea…
« Heads up group, we have to stop standing around here looking at each other like this. We have to act and we have to do it quickly. »
« As i said before, what’s the plan chief? » asked Nakano cheerfully, obviously trying to lighten up the atmosphere.
« Very simple… First of all, the planet is in danger and we are causing a part of it .Paula and Talehn, if you both feel up to it, you two should go to the Core and meet up with some executive or another to try and convince them to stop all operations. I don’t expect them to do it, but we have to try…Do you feel up to it? »
Both Talehn and Paula nodded.
« Good, since i don’t trust them to be really safe at the Core, will someone volunteer to go with them for extra protection?"
« I’ll gladly take that job! » answered Byrce with a smile as he stepped forward.
« Good, that part is clear then. Whatever happens at the Core, i want you three to meet up at noon at the District Airport with the rest of us. That’s in approximatively six hours and a half. » said the hunter looking at his watch.
« What about me? » asked Cisia weakly.
It was clear to the hunter that Cisia had gone through alot tonight and she looked exhausted.
« The last thing we want is for you to be caught here, so I’m sending you with Anika , Phoenix and Nakano… They’ll be protecting you till noon and meet up with everyone at the airport. I know that you have gone through alot here and that you may not exactly trust us all, but you have my word of honor, these people all want your safety, for one reason or another. »
« Why do you want us all to meet at the airport? That’s one of guarded places in town. » snarled Phoenix.
« I didn’t say hide there, Isaid we’d meet there… We may all have to skip town if things go badly and we’ll be ready to leave quickly in case we do have to leave… »
« And you’d buy a plane ticket to leave? You’re nuts! The people at the customs will arrest us in a second! » snapped Phoenix Mark.
« They won’t, because Ihave a plane there, that isn’t registered to my name! » snapped Darian as he took out keys from his pockets and jingled them in Mark’s face.
Darian threw the keys at Anika who caught them with one hand. His partner was deep in her thoughts and Darian knew it very well.
«Anika will pilot the plane if needed. She also has the keys to my car now, so you guys’ll move around by car… Any questions? »
Silence.Only the sound of the wind could be heard. And suddenly, the sound of thunder cracked above their heads and droplets of rain started to pour down. Nobody answered.
No questions, thought Darian as he felt a few drops of rain fall on him, everything was clear and agreed by all.
Cisia looked in amazement around her. Rain started to pour down. Though all the plans had been made and agreed on, everyone just stood there, and were still looking at each other. The only one that seemed very determined to move was Darian. It was clear that they were all going against the odds here and more than one of them expected to die tonight. Hell, she didn’t expect to make it out of this herself. But it was still very much worth it to try to make it out of this one. In her whole existence, Cisia had rarely had the chance to be her own person. Always attached to the Core as an interface or, in the last few hours since she finally tasted freedom, she was simply possessed by one being or another. It felt good to be in control of her body once more. She looked at Talehn, who, in his turn was looking at Paula. Once more, this weird feeling in her stomach happened, but it wasn’t anything alarming at all, yet it was strange to her.
Was this the infamous feeling known as love?
There was no way to know, but she promised herself she would ask Anika later on…
Cisia looked at the young blonde hunter and told herself that Anika was most certainly in love with Darian. And if she wasn’t, she cared about her partner a great deal. One way or another, as weak as she felt, she was back, and she was in control of herself. She had to enjoy the moment no matter what… Her thoughts were interrupted as Paula started to talk.
"Raoul? How did…" said the biologist out loud A pause "I'm fine … physically. But I think we're going to need some help."
She said after the small pause, as if she was conversing with someone.
« Paula, who are you talking to?" asked Darian, raising an eyebrow. "That was Darian Ashley. I've fallen in with... this is going to take a while to explain." Said Paula , ignoring Darian’s question . She took another pause and started to blurt out the whole story… The whole group was standing there, under the rain…
« I’m making a move, said Darian, I’ll see you all at the airport at noon. »
The scarred hunter picked up the unconscious Tetsuhara and turned his back on the whole group and started to walk away. Paula had moved away from them to talk to whoever she was talking to in private.
« No you’re not! You’re staying with us! » said Anika.
Cisia stated in horror that Anika had her gun pointed at Darian’s back…
« No you’re not! You’re staying with us! »
Byrce looked at this whole situation and was thinking up of a thousand ways to deal with this situation. This was a horrible development and he had seen it happen before. Passion murders were always the hardest ones to deal with. And from his point of view, this could easily happen any second now. He drew his gun and saw from the corner of his eye that Nakano and Phoenix had drawn their guns on Anika too. The young woman didn’t flinch for a second. It was clear, even through the drops of rain that were pouring down, that there was only her and Darian in her world right now, and that she hadn’t even noticed that three guys had drawn their guns on her.
« Stop! » screamed Talehn trying to calm the situaton down « This certainly isn’t the time for us to pull any of this crap! »
That was a bad move on Talehn’s part. Though the Ether technician wanted to calm things down, screaming was most certainly a bad way to do it. It only tensed up things. Would he have the guts to shoot Anika to save Darian’s life? Byrce certainly hoped it wouldn’t have to come to that. He had killed Tasser tonight already, and he truly hoped he wouldn’t have to shoot another comrade…
Anika was trembling as she had her gun was pointed at Darian’s back.
« I said stop! » she screamed again. « You can’t do this! I’m tired of seeing the men I care about dying! You simply can’t go off into certain death like that! »
Darian stopped and looked at her with his icy blue eyes. Those eyes that always looked at her tenderly were as passionate as ever. A lump formed itself in her throat as she tried to swallow her saliva. Each gulp was more painful than the other.
« I’m sorry Anika, you’ll have to shoot me to stop me! » said Darian softly.
By now, she felt a mixture of rage, sadness and love stirring up in her soul. Her parents died when she was but a child, her friend Hugo died when she was 14, Merrit died just now, and Darian was going off into certain death. Why did all the people she cared about always die?
Darian turned around slowly and continued walking. She pointed her gun to the sky pulled the trigger three times. Darian didn’t flich once. Soon, the rain was too heavy and her partner dissapeared… The young hunter fell to her knees. She had never felt as empty as this . She wanted to force tears out of her eyes, but none came out. She was too exhausted to cry. And she told herself that she had no reason to mourn her partner… yet. Someone...she didn’t really look to see who it was, came to her and helped her get back on her feet. She took one last glance at where she saw Darian dissapear, and told her partner goodbye in her head… Tears then came out of her eyes but they were quickly washed off by the rain…
Hihori Yodama was sleeping the sleep of a just man… Never did he feel any guilt because he knew all of his acts were justified. His dreams were always peaceful and relaxing. On this night, he was dreaming of a beautiful tropical island where birds were free and nature was at its beuty peak. And he was on that island to enjoy its freedom.
His dream was interrupted by a ring on his private line.
« Yes? » he answered as he picked up the phone quickly in a sleepy tone of voice.
« Mister Yodama? This is Enforcer Daisuke Makimura of the team you sent to assist Shin Tetsuhara… »
« Yes, make your report Daisuke! » said Hihori impatiently « We have found Tetsuhara and Ashley… Tetsuhara is uncounscious and severely beaten, and Ashley has surrendered to us… Ashley’s friends are nowhere to be seen… What shall we do sir? »
Yodama stood silent for a moment.
« Bring Ashley to me immediately, we’ll take care of his friends later on… »
« Yes sir. » Yodama hung up the phone and looked straight at the ceiling for a good while. This whole affair was going to be cleared up very soon…
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