Chapter 3
The Mercenaries
The birds flew in the air, squawked and soared down, shaking the muddy feet which he got from the puddle. It was flying above the man walking on the street. He hardly looked hygiene, wore a long worn out yellow coat, which the mud spattered on the bottom end. He wore the filthy little shirt and the cap which was torn out on the side. Contrastingly he wore the luxurious golden watch and also the black, shining rifle strapped on his back.
His name is Herbie Madison, the man with a tanned and unshaved face; he was walking under the bridge painted with graffiti and filled with garbage. One little child was sitting at the metal structure of the bridge, watched him passing by from above. Herbie glanced at the child with his sharp, hawk-like eyes, piercing the child’s heart. The child froze and shuddered; he looked away and moved his body further back to the shadow.
The child’s name was Jake; he was the member of the club called the ‘Rodents.’ It is the club formed by a group of youngsters which recently became Veron’s new target, as its movement was intolerable in his eyes. Jake heard about what happened to the street musicians and break dancers, who were caught by Veron’s agents, the secret police units who surveillance the whole city. Jake and others in the club managed not to be seen by them because their meeting place was well hidden inside the old urban landscape which had many abandoned buildings. What the club does is that they jumped around the urban forest, through the buildings and construction areas, jumping around with excitement and with their boiling blood. As they had a contrasting look compared to the typical people dwelling in the city who looked more like zombies, Veron saw this as a dangerous activities done by rebels.
Herbie looked at the shadow under the bridge where the kid disappeared, made a snorting sound and walked past the bridge. Herbie wasn’t a secret agent, he was a mercenary. However recently, he was bit disturbed by the news concerning the growing power of Nina Polchinski, fearing some shift in power in Cassandra. According to the information from his fellow mercenaries, she is a schizophrenic killer with no emotion and is completely out of her mind. Herbie knew that those mercenaries were talking bogus and tried to exaggerate certain news they liked to talk about. He never met Nina in person, but he knew her army, Machina, as the name indicates, mainly formed with high tech machineries. The reason why he feared her was mainly because of her ghosts, specialized military units with a Stealth capability.
At first, Veron was excited about Nina’s presence because he thought her machines would bolster his security and expand his regime. It wasn’t too long ago that Veron found out about her past which left him panicking like a lamebrain crackpot, for eight years ago, he slaughtered Nina’s family. As a result, he ordered many, including Herbie who was spending time in a prison at the time, to surveillance what Nina’s whereabouts and what was she doing. Veron offered Herbie a deal, to release him from prison if he can track Nina down. Herbie accepted it gladly and went back to his old apartment.
Herbie thought that Veron is becoming overly paranoid toward Nina. However even the Assassins’ Chamber, another powerful military group, held the gathering to discuss the matter of weakening Nina’s growing power. But they finally concluded that even though Nina needs to be watched constantly, Machina’s army was too small. Therefore, ‘don’t make a fuss,’ that was their conclusion.
“I can’t give up,” he talked to himself. “I escaped from that hellish place on earth. Although all I did is relocate myself into this pile of shit,” he crossed the bridge; he saw some fat pigeon which was having a hard time taking a further step. He glanced at it and started dashing toward the pigeon. The poor pigeon was alarmed, flapped its wings helplessly to get away but it did no good. He grabbed the pigeon and threw it under the bridge; it made a weird sound as it went down. Herbie felt some odd, bizarre sense of pleasure. He didn’t bother to look what happened down the bridge, but paced himself toward the town. Herbie approached the building with the wired fence blocking the entrance. He pressed the doorbell.
“Who is it?” the hoarse voice came out from the speaker, full of hostility.
“It’s Herbie, open it up,” Herbie spoke.
“Herbie… Gee… you can’t come here. Did you escape from the prison?” the man hissed.
“No, I did not, Robert, Veron set me loose he wants to frame Ms. Polchinski. Hey, the words in the street is not good, I think there will be a war, we have to talk,” Herbie growled with a low voice.
“Herbie, get your shit together, there isn’t going to be any war, alright? Stop worrying about it,” snarled Robert.
“Hey, I’m not asking for your lousy help to save myself! I’m better off on my own. But still we need to talk! Now open this damn door!” Herbie bellowed, banging the gate.
“I could just tell you to shut your mouth right now and go back to work,” Robert sneered.
“I heard about the mail, Robert, right hand of Nina Polchinski have disappeared. She probably made him to spy over us, we have to do something! Not to mention our organization is now falling apart, and with those shitty retarded kids you recruited, you will not survive this storm,” Herbie barked.
The gate made a buzzing sound. Herbie smirked and entered the garden. The garden was full of long grasses and the decaying tree. He walked toward the wooden door which was half opened. When he entered the house, he saw a grubby, disarrayed, dungy-dusty house. The aged pepperoni pizza spattered on the ground, dried and shrunk like some worm died on a pavement. Robert seemed to be preparing a breakfast when Herbie rang the doorbell. Robert was holding a turkey breast sandwich; he put the cold turkey sandwich on the microwave.
“I didn’t know you cooked,” said Herbie, grinning.
“Well, it is the morning, I’m hungry; so I eat the food.” grumbled Robert, taking out the cherry pie from the refrigerator and set it on the table.
“Come on Robert. Don’t be like some grumpy old man, you are still young. Well, not that young.” Herbie laughed.
“Yeah, have some pie, will ya, ye bastard,” Robert curled his lips.
Herbie and Robert were friends long before they both got into the Mercenary Network. They were foreigners. In the past, they had a failed robbery in the rich neighborhood in their home country. They ran away from the law enforcement officers and entered Cassandra. Cassandra was a war-ridden society where people earn living by selling cocaine, weaponry and counterfeiting. The country was dwelled by criminals, prostitutes, escaped prisoners, and extreme thinkers. Because of this, the country sometimes referred to as a ‘Tabula Rasa.’ However, as the business flourished, people who wanted to rule the country started a war and topple off the current government. After the years and years of long tiresome wars and conflicts, Veron became a dictator and titled himself the Emperor. That ambitious blockhead tried to expand his empire since then, until Nina came along and threatened the whole system. Before Herbie went to prison, he made a living by selling personal protection kits and weaponry they made, living quietly. One time when Veron’s soldiers came along and threatened to pay absurdly high tax, Herbie end up losing his temper, beat up the soldier and went to prison.
“So, the right hand of Nina, what was his name again?” said Herbie, his mouth full of cherry pie, the crumbles glued on his lips. Robert was shaking his knees awful lot, waiting for the turkey sandwich to heat up.
“Alvin Caravel, disgustingly talented gunslinger. I’ve heard news regarding him from time to time and it shivers my back. Unfortunately, I have to say, I agree with you regarding his news, I don’t think he left Nina Polchinski’s command,” said Robert, breaking the pie with hand and chewing it.
“So, Polchinski is up to something,” said Herbie.
“Yes, but I don’t have a clue,” said Robert, with a sulky attitude.
Herbie saw the old socks lying around the floor, with few bullets scattered alongside it. Robert surely was in a bad mood today. He looked like he hasn’t had a sleep for days; he had a distracted look with sunken eyes.
“So, are you feeling scared and miserable that Caravel might be blazing his guns around anytime soon?” asked Herbie, tittering.
“Shut up,” said Robert, getting the sandwich as the microwave started beeping.
It was a foot long sandwich, golden skin of turkey sticking out, steaming on the table. Herbie took another slice of cherry pie and took a huge bite.
“This is good,” said Herbie. “Shot of vodka would’ve been nice.”
“If Caravel causes a trouble, the Assassins’ Chamber will take care of it, as long as it doesn’t interfere with our business, we are good. How did you know about the mail anyway?” said Robert, demanding.
“Relax, relax, if you can get access to the information, it is either an announcement which everyone shares or a spam where you make donation,” Herbie lay back on the chair, crossing his leg.
“Always nice to see you,” said Robert, sarcastically. “I have more serious news to be concerned about; I couldn’t sleep and eat for days now. But, today I’m more relaxed, so…” said Robert, having a big bite at sandwich, ripping it up and swallowed it.
“Yeah I’ve noticed you bit looked extra ugly. What is the news?” said Herbie, staring at Robert, focusing on his bony cheek.
“Four days ago, the person who claimed to be working under Nina Polchinski called me. I don’t know whether he was joking or not because the call was untraceable,” said Robert.
“What do they want?” muttered Herbie.
“She wants our drone technology,” said Robert.
“Why does she want our shit for? I thought she was better at that,” said Herbie, confused.
“True, I think she wants to study what kind of system we are using. We were the one who sold Veron the drones,” said Robert.
“What did she offer in return?” asked Herbie.
“It’s a lot, around thirty thousand ora. It’s a good deal. But if we refuse, she will blow our asses to the moon,” said Robert. Ora is the one of the currencies Cassandra used, which contained precious metals, as Cassandra had no proper financial institution. Ora contained gold, enosi contained silver and psomi contained copper.
“Come on, we can’t just make a deal. If Veron finds out, our neck will be gone, and I rather die in Nina’s hand than that sick bastard. I’m telling you that Nina is no match for Veron. Veron’s army is too massive to be handled by Nina’s toys; it would be hard for her to win the war,” said Herbie.
“I see… I do think accepting the offer was out of question. Well, I guess we are on the same page now,” said Robert.
“By the way, I’m short on cash; bounty hunting business is not bad. How much is Caravel’s neck?” asked Herbie.
“I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure it is dead or alive. But, I have no interest in trouble making. I’m trying to keep my ass in the shadow, my friend,” Robert cackled. Herbie leaned back, swallowing big chunk of pie into his stomach.
“I’m boiling with excitement which has been vacant for many years. I’m going to hunt him down,” Herbie grinned.