Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (31 page)

“Good.  I’ve tested the pistols, they’re
the real deal.  Let’s hope Curtis was able to use them.”

These are the same pistols I put
in Curtis’s pack.  Alex raises one in the air and inspects it.  He points it
forward, shooting at an imaginary target.

Alex is my other right hand man. 
I tell him what I tell Ace.  I need Ace for his speed and grace.  I need Alex
for his intimidation and brute strength.  He is the last line of defense I have
if it ever comes down to that.

“And have you prepped Candy’s
bombs?” I ask him.

“Sure have, they’re under here. 
You sure had a lot of work in store for Candy this week.”

He lifts up the blanket and
reveals a cache of ten metal cylinders.

“Well,” I say, “it’s good to be
prepared.”

These bombs are slightly different
from the ones that she made for Lombardi and Curtis.  It’s not a squeeze and
explode type grenade.  There are strings attached to the trigger device.  If
you pull the string hard enough, it arms and explodes.

I sometimes wonder how Candy was
able to assemble all this.  She said it was easy given that our hideout used to
be an industrial chemical plant.  As she explained, there was enough stuff to
play with that she could’ve made an array of homemade explosives, if she had
more time.

Once we’re almost ready to leave,
I will call Ace back in and instruct Alex to set these around the perimeter. 
The teleportation stage of my plan is fragile and can’t be interrupted, so if
someone does crash the party they’ll walk right into my trap.  A simple trip on
the strings and they’ll be blown to kingdom come.

“What about this one?” Colbo
says.  He presents me another cylinder shaped canister, but it is much bigger
than the others.  It’s similar to the one Curtis has and it’s just as powerful.

“Give it to me,” I say.  “I’ll be
the last one through the teleporter.  Before I go through, I’ll toss this one
into the station to make sure this place is destroyed.  It’ll be much harder to
figure out where we go if they don’t have anything left to inspect.  I’ll make
sure this place is burned to the ground in order to secure our safety.”

Suddenly, my transmitter lets out
an earsplitting beep.

“Ace?” Alex asks me.

“No, this is for the other thing,”
I say.

I’m referring to Curtis.  That was
the signal to let me know his deed is done.  Alex looks at the ground and
shakes his head.  “Poor guy.”

Words cannot express the mixed
feelings I have at the moment.  My brother is dead.  Yet, it was what he
wanted, it would’ve happened with or without my interference.  I can’t turn
back time now.

“Yeah, poor guy,” I say solemnly.

“Do… do you think he got all of
those bastards?  Those people who are coming for us?”  Alex asks.

“He did send the signal, so that
means he got the job done.  I trust him on that.”

We stand there in awkward
silence.  I don’t know if it’s appropriate to continue talk of our plans. 
Luckily, I don’t have to.  Ace bursts into the station, astonishing the three
of us inside.

“Tiago, you won’t believe it!” he
yells.

I’m prepared for the worst.  I’m
expecting Ace to tell us that a full cadre of soldiers are outside our
hideout.  But to my surprise, it’s not that, it’s two people I thought I’d
never see again.

“Iris, Isaac,” I say stunned.

“Hello, Tiago,” Isaac replies.

“What are you doing here?”  My
voice is shaking.  I’m not sure what happened with Oscar and I’m worried that
Isaac discovered my deceit.

“We, we, were attacked,” Isaac’s
voice trembles.  “Oscar and Maddie, they’re dead.”

All of us look shocked, but only
Candy’s is genuine.  We’re not stunned that Oscar and Maddie are dead, we’re
more stunned that the twins are still alive.

“What happened?” I ask him.

“We were ambushed by a human, a
pig, and a dog, agents of the United Species Alliance.  They killed Oscar,
Maddie killed the pig, and they killed Maddie.  We were able to escape in the
chaos and came here.”

“And the human and dog, they
didn’t follow you?” Alex asks.

“No,” Iris says.  “The human
tended to the pig, but the dog chased after us.  We were able to… incapacitate
him.”

“Impressive,” Alex says.

“So, what brings you here?” Ace
asks.

Isaac clears his throat.  “After
what happened to Oscar and Maddie, we don’t have anywhere to go.  We only have
you guys left.  We want to rejoin you on your mission to the Moon.  I’m sorry
we left earlier, but now, we know.  Iris and I, we trust you.  You’re a good
brother and I know you’ll help us out.”

The last thing Isaac says pierces
me like a dagger.  He trusts me.  I then look at Iris, whose demeanor is a bit
more cautious than Isaac’s.  I’m afraid of her in some sense.  She’s been
different her whole life.  She knows things and from what I see, it appears she
knows something right now.

I wonder if I should let them
rejoin my crew.  They’ll no doubt be helpful to my cause.  Yet, I cannot.  When
I look at the twins, all I can think about is that they turned their backs on me. 
They went with that deserter, Oscar.  They know how much I revere them, how I
think they are extraordinary individuals, but when I needed their support, they
let me down.  How do I know that it won’t happen again?  My emotions get the
better of me.

“I’m sorry, Isaac and Iris,” I
say, trying to show as gruff of an exterior as I can, “but you cannot join us. 
You’ve made your choice when you left and so did I.  We will be making this
trip without you.”

“Tiago, no!” Candy yells.

“I’m sorry, Candy, but that’s my
decision.”

Candy looks hesitantly at me and
then at Iris and Isaac.  She walks forward and gives Iris a big hug, tears
rolling down her eyes.  Iris receives her embrace.  She looks heartbroken,
while Isaac looks enraged.

“Why are you doing this, brother?”
he yells with tones of confusion and frustration.  “You would abandon your own
kin out of a petty sense of pride?  Don’t you care about us?”

I do, but I can’t trust their
loyalty.

“I used to,” I say.  “But not
anymore.”

“Where will we go?” Iris asks
desperately.

“I don’t know and it’s not my
problem,” I say unemotionally.  “Walk east, walk west, walk north, walk south. 
Just make sure it’s away from here.”

Isaac walks up to me, his fury
flushed across his face.  We stand eye to eye to each other.  He extends his
head forward, past my ear, and whispers, “I hope you die for this.”

He then does an about face and
walks the other direction, towards the exit.  “C’mon, Iris, let’s go.  There’s
nothing for us here.”

Iris starts to follow him and
looks behind one more time at the family she’ll leave.  I expected her to be
remorseful, but she isn’t.  Instead, she looks relieved.  I don’t fully
understand it and part of it scares me.  What does she know?

“Where will you go?” Candy asks as
they leave.

“Back home,” Isaac responds. 
“Back to where this all started.”

The door opens and they leave.  I
probably will never see them again.

Ace sneaks up next to me and asks
me quietly, “Do you want me to follow them?  You know, keep tabs, in case we
need them?”

Iris’s goodbye still haunts my
mind.  I stand there perplexed, trying to figure out what she was saying with
her face.  I could get Ace to follow them, to force an answer out of her.  But
that’s too much, even for me.  Some think I am ruthless, but I have my limits.

“No, leave them alone,” I say.  I
think about the past night.  “I’ve done enough already.”

November 17, 3040
3:25 AM

The last twenty minutes have been
hell for Commander Trevor and I.  We last heard from Fenrir and his company a
little under half an hour ago.  He had Curtis Lawton cornered, but after a
short conversation and a bang it’s been nothing but silence from their end.

My head had been hurting like hell
up to that point.  The halfkinds whacked me pretty hard.  It felt like an anvil
landed on me.  I must’ve been out cold for ten or fifteen minutes before Simon
found me in the sewers.  He was able to wake me up, but I still felt really
groggy.  My head was throbbing and my body was sore.  I wanted to vomit all the
time, but I could only dry heave.

Simon eventually led me back to
the Spades and Diamond Casino where the bodies of Borton, Maddie, and Oscar
Lawton lied, covered with blankets.  From his arms to his feet, the Commander’s
uniform was stained with blood.  When Borton got speared, it was a mess.  Blood
squirted everywhere.  Since I wasn’t there, I wonder how long it took for him
to finally bleed out, or maybe the Commander performed a mercy killing.  He
didn’t say one word about what went down, but that might have been the case.

Losing teammates is something that
always brings the Commander down.  Even though Borton was a scumbag, he was a
colleague, a pig that Simon was responsible for.  It’s never easy to have a
squad member die on you.  I think Simon sees Borton’s death as a reflection of
his failure.  He didn’t just let Borton down, he let himself down.

I took some time to rest while
Simon debriefed Fenrir about what happened.  They discussed their upcoming task
at the Gonzalez station.  My head was still throbbing.  I had taken some meds
that eased the pain.  It was stuff that Simon gave me, high grade human
pharmaceuticals.  Still, it wasn’t strong enough to keep me on my feet for more
than a few minutes.  I needed at least an hour or so until I was ready for
action.

That’s the real reason why we
didn’t join up with Fenrir.  Commander Trevor wanted to assist.  He was aching
for an opportunity to redeem himself.  But then he saw my condition and
realized I was not combat ready.  It was a tough decision for him, but it’s situations
like these where his integrity shines.

That didn’t mean he was taking it
easy here.  Once Fenrir, Colbo, and Erawan started, he was glued to his
communicator.  He trusted them with their duties, but he also wanted to make
sure they were safe.

After the mines were disabled and
Fenrir went to pursue Curtis Lawton on his own, Commander Trevor’s concern grew
greater.  We had seen pictures of Curtis.  We knew how big he was and during
their skirmish he had the upper hand.  When Fenrir was getting strangled, Simon
frantically demanded to know what was going on.  Fenrir was probably too choked
up to respond or even hear Commander Trevor, but Colbo gave the play by play. 
With Fenrir’s life on the line, Simon barked for someone to take action.  Fire
a shot, throw a bomb, whatever, just intervene.  Fortunately, Erawan was there
to make the save.

I had never seen Simon so
intense.  Not during our first mission, not during our many meet-ups and
outings.  He’s usually a professional guy with a cool exterior.  But perhaps
the pressure was getting to him, especially after Borton’s death.  He didn’t
want anyone else to die on his watch.

Once Curtis had been subdued and
Fenrir had him at gunpoint, that’s when things went into chaos.  We heard Fenrir
have a conversation with Curtis, but it was hard to make out what they were
saying exactly.  There was too much interference, probably from some kind of
transmitting device.  Then, without warning, a large boom echoed through my
communicator.  It blared into our ears like a fireball.  Commander Trevor and I
looked at each other confused, but we were thinking the same thing - a bomb
must’ve gone off.

After that, it was static and the
sound of silence.  Commander Trevor immediately looked at me and said, “Apollo,
how are you feeling now?”

“I’m better,” I responded.

“Good, because we’re going to the
Gonzalez station on the double.”

Both of us quickly assembled our
gear and high tailed it out of there.  There was no time to do anything about
the bodies, we had to leave them.  Our transport wasn’t parked nearby, since we
entered on foot, so we rushed over as fast as we could.  I’ve never seen a
human run so fast, even I could barely keep up with him.

When we got to his vehicle,
Commander Trevor powered up his hovercar and in seconds we were in the air,
charging to the Gonzalez station.

I’m now sitting in his transport in
silence.  I look at the Commander and I see him doubting himself.  It’s
something I never expected to see.

His eyes are slanted and his mouth
is quaking.  He wraps his hands tightly, too tightly, on his controls, and
under his breath I can hear him mumbling out curses.

Ever since I met him as a young,
naïve operative of the Dog Alliance, I’ve admired him.  He was my role model,
what I wanted be like in all facets of life.  His career, his honor, his
ability to make his team members feel welcome, inspired me.  But to see your
idol on the brink is disheartening.  You realize he’s not perfect, not
indestructible.

His shoulders were carrying an
amount of guilt I had never experienced and I could tell his head was filled
with questions.  What if I had done this?  What if I hadn’t?  So many choices
were being evaluated in a matter of seconds.

“Damnit!” Simon yells in
frustration.

“Commander?” I ask him in a
concerned tone.

“What the hell was I thinking? 
Why didn’t I see it earlier.  Fenrir pointed out the obvious and I still
ignored the signs.”

“Commander, what are you talking
about?”

“It was a trap, Apollo.  From the
beginning, Fenrir said it was a trap and I didn’t listen to him.  Now he might
be dead because I made the wrong call.”

“No, don’t think that.  Your
judgment was right.  It was the smartest move to make at the time.  I mean,
they couldn’t hide forever, they had to act.  The transportation station was
the only way out and we all knew that.”