Chapter 25.Cuffs
Hearing the order to stop, the Soldier picked up the speed by giving full throttle. “Above all is to take them away from the field. For myself, I’ll come through. Not a big deal, I’ve worked with worse.” In ten minutes of the rush, he saw the road blocked, yet he remained satisfied: the Stranger is likely to have already been at the green hills.
He got out of the car calmly, sneering at the guns facing him.
“Hi, colleagues. Who dares to chain me?” he asked, stretching his shoulders, wrists and neck. “By the way, what’s the reason for the detention?”
“Car theft,” one of the agents answered with a fixed smile.
“That’s right, your brain is good-for-nothing but dealing with car theft,” the Soldier was teasing them on purpose, to keep on the safe side, for security, to fill in time. Besides, he wanted to take out his rage onto the people who drove him apart from the Stranger and miracles he had looked forward to see.
“We need only Stranger,” said the man who apparently was a leader of the group. “Give answer and you may go even in the theft car.”
The Soldier spat out. The safety lock clicked. The agent slowly raised his hand with a gun.
“Cheap bluff,” the Soldier said quietly, without a trace of fear. “I’ll speak to your boss only. The operation we are conducting now is beyond your scope. I hope, you’re aware of my position in the General staff?”
“You will speak to the boss; you must be in cuffs now, though. But first, we’ll pay you back,” a strong agent gave a nod to a tall guy, and they made a move towards the Soldier.
He was ready to fighting, and even was glad. He stepped aside to be shut by one of the assaulters from the other one. The first enemy jumped up to him trying to kick his hip. To start fight with kicking is mortal amateurship. The Soldier was disappointed. He responded to the blow easily by slightly raising the knee bent, but he decided not to play with the opponent. Just a sudden lunge with a left hand. The man who attacked first was able to spring back, but lost balance. The second hop blow that was sideswiped fell to the lower cheek-bone. The head jerked, and the man fell backwards.
The Soldier rushed to the second fighter’s feet escaping his giant fist. He clenched the enemy under the knee and knocked him down with a lunge. Then, quickly rising up and at the same time pulling sharply the agent towards himself, the Soldier countered him at the head. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the motion of another fighter, rolled over aside, and rushed to his feet, grasped at the ankle, and giving a sharp twist turned out the foot. The agent lost balance, fell down fours. The Soldier jumped up and hit him at the nose with his knee, blood spattered. They did not come up to the Soldier any more. Contented with the fight, he stood smiling with a gracious wry smile.
“Guys, I don’t give in,” he took a deep breath repeatedly to recover breathing.
The leader of the group took an electric gun. The Soldier got tensed when he saw the weapon and turned pale shutting lips tight.
“It’s fifty thousand volts. Hold still, I haven’t decided yet whether to apply it or not. I do not want to carry you unconscious. Let’s do it on a good note: put on the cuffs, and let’s go. Nobody will lay a finger on you, you have my word.”
The Soldier looked around, and called to mind the Stranger and his words:
“If your neighbors are armed and numerous… God is the Reality. He is the Protection”. The Soldier made up his mind to appeal to this reality. He looked up into the sky and shouted,
“God of the Stranger, help me! Give me power too! May my enemies fall!”
The security agents looked around, some burst laughing: the joke was apt to relax the atmosphere.
“Stop screwing,” the commander threw the cuffs under his feet.
The Soldier looked at the sky reproachfully, did up the bracelets at his wrists, sat up front and said through his teeth: “Let’s go.”
The agents gave their commander a questioning look: a detained may not sit front, but the commander permitted and took to the wheel himself. The task to recruit the Soldier, or, at least, to pave the way for recruitment failed. He had not ‘defend’ the Soldier from furious agents. The world-old game in good and evil policemen had no effect.
The Soldier was disappointed as well. He called to the God sincerely, but all in waste, he failed to be heard.
“Do not think, do not think of anything,” he tried to impress on himself. “I’m a good brick, they won’t catch the Stranger, and this is above all things now. Keep quiet. I’ll think later. Now, I have to calm down. Everything what’s happening is nothing but a performance, with everybody playing its own part.” He called to mind happy and joyful moments, his safe and proven method for composing and making sound decisions not burden with negative emotions.
“How’s with you, Soldier?” the process of self-composing was interrupted.
“Has been fine till met you. What a bad habit with your people to poke nose into else’s business? What is that to you? I mean the Stranger and me. Are we enemies of the state? Terrorists? What’s wrong with what we have done? Who can forbid us to arrive in the City?”
“Don’t you know?” the agent paused on the word. “The Seer.”
“Who is he?” the Soldier was simmering with anger. “Why does he order else’s destiny? Why do you obey his orders? Does he pay to you? The Seer is your commander now, huh? A sponsor?”
“We are trying to tackle. We also want to see the reason why he has turned to us. You see, Soldier, we sympathize with you, we have the common goal, and we don’t mean harm to the Stranger. But if we don’t help the Seer, what will he do next?”
“You mean he would turn to somebody else?” the Soldier turned sulky.
“Sure. The Seer can hire anybody: he has the means. They can do such hunting; there’ll be hell to pay. In the City, our service is action-constrained. But the hired guns feel at home. The Stranger is in danger.”
“You’re the only ones to hunt us for now. The Stranger can stick up for himself,” the Soldier said unflinchingly.
“We’ve already got it. He has a good command of hypnosis. But can he send into a trance, say, a sniper? Can he deal with professional mercenaries? Sorry, but they are not the criminal drug users to be sent into a trance by any hypnotist, for they already have their brain freeze. Our service has collected sufficient data on people with psychic powers. There are few who know anything about them, even in our service, only the select have access to the information. There is a special department established to study people like the Stranger. And you know what our experience shows: they get sick and die like ordinary mortals, if not more frequently: ‘he knew too much, so, the God took him too early’. They have to be protected against hostile special services, criminals, or religious fanatics. Do you remember the story from sacred books about the prophet by the name of the Wonderworker who used to retrieve a king from certain death by warning him about ambushes and traps? Enemies suggested leakage of information, but later, they arrive at the conclusion that it was the Wonderworker that saved the king, so they made up mind to kill the prophet. Don’t you think something has changed now? They are always hunted for. If you do want to help your friend, let’s do it
together.”
The Soldier kept silence, he wanted to tell the talker about the Stranger very much. To find him and escort as before, and to take these guys to guard him. However, he saw the agent play a game, telling all right, though. You mustn’t believe agents, preachers, policemen and advertisement. This is an axiom the Soldier has already learnt when taking special courses. It’s fine to play with the agent, showing that you give credit to him, about giving credit… Let him believe you to be in his trap. Agents are pretentious and vain, they trust in their being chosen and gifted with power.
“Have you any constructive suggestion to make?” the Soldier asked somewhat perplexedly.
“I do have, still it’s up to you to decide,” the agent was leading his part with care.
&nbs
p; “For example?”
“We can go back to find the Stranger. If you don’t confide in me, let’s drive in one car, say, only three of us, but you have to be in cuffs. Sorry, old boy, you are more dangerous to us than we are for you. If you wish, let’s go to our office. You’ll talk to the Chief to make a sound decision. The Stranger cannot do without assistance. Do you know where to look for him?”
“I do not know. We haven’t discussed it yet. Had no time.”
“Now you can see. We can be late. We must find him now till he is not dissolved in the City,” the agent’s voice sounded tensed and threatening.
“I need to be left alone,” the Soldier scratched his chin. “Stop the car. I’ll go out to think.”