Murder of Crows (Book One of The Icarus Trilogy) (34 page)

Edward Norris keyed in on the soldier in the background and centered the crosshairs just a dash to the right of the man’s helmet; he had to compensate for the wind resistance and timing.  The Crow pulled the trigger and felt the recoil shudder through his entire frame.  He checked back through the scope and watched as the blood spray from the wound arced over the ground.  For a second the slave soldier in front just looked around and Norris could just tell that he had no idea that his friend was already dying with a hole through his head.  The sniper was just centering the crosshairs for the next shot when he heard Jenkins whisper across the room.

“There’s a couple over here, too!”  Jenkins hadn’t known what to do with himself when Norris started his hunt.  For a while he stood there and watched but he felt awkward the entire time.  Before Norris had planted a bullet through the soldier’s head Jenkins decided that he could at least do his job and be the spotter. 

The young Crow crept around the second floor and looked at each avenue of approach.  It wasn’t until he got to the opposite wall that he noticed that there was another pair walking towards them.  Jenkins figured that the two pairs of soldiers were trying to rendezvous at a good landmark, and Jenkins figured that this building would be just as good as any.  The young Crow heard the gunshot from the rifle echoing through the clearing and noticed that the two Krakens obviously knew something had happened.  That was when he desperately whispered at his compatriot, hoping that Norris would finish his business quickly.

Meanwhile, Norris was busy trying to hit a running target.  After the small distraction he had turned back to aim at the Kraken and found that the soldier was trying to get to some suitable cover. 
At least he’s not an idiot
, the jester thought before trying to lead the man with his aim.  The bullet would be fast as hell, but his trigger finger would not, so he had to compensate a small amount.  Norris took his time and squeezed his finger and felt the recoil shudder through his body again.  He looked through the scope and could see the man holding his neck on the ground.  The Englishman smiled and picked up his rifle.

“Better than a massage,” he said before rushing over to Jenkins’ position.  He liked the kid, but as he saw the young Crow lifting his rifle Norris shook his head; he didn’t trust him to hit anything past a hundred meters.  The Englishman was almost over to the wall when he heard a creak and felt the floor give way beneath his foot.  He tried to catch himself, but the wood caught on something else and his ankle landed on it all wrong.  Norris felt the snap of bone and sinew and soon afterwards the pain ripped through his leg.

“Fuck me!  Bloody HELL!  FU-,” he shouted before trying to hold his tongue.  Prior to the break he had been trying to keep their whereabouts unknown, but now that was a distant prospect and all he could feel was the pain flowing through his leg.  Jenkins turned from his position and rushed over to the Englishman.  He threw his arms under the man’s armpits and did what he could to drag his compatriot out of the hole, but Norris was not happy about it.  Without knowing it, Jenkins caused the sniper an enormous amount of pain as his ankle bumped up against a number of boards on its way out of the hole.  The jester’s face was twisted in pain as he lied on his side; he couldn’t even hear what Jenkins was saying until the shock was setting in.

“What’s going on?  What’s wrong?”  Norris bit his cheek and looked at the young soldier.  He would deal with the pain later.  He grabbed the sniper rifle with one hand and thrust it at the boy in grim determination.

“Ankle.  Can’t move right now.  You blow their heads off for me, why don’t ya?”  The pain was getting to be too much and Norris couldn’t help but wince.  Jenkins shook his head and held the rifle like it was some sort of relic.

“I’ve never trained for it.  I don’t know how to use it.”  Norris looked at him and let his eyes narrow.

“It’s a fucking gun!  Point it at people and shoot them.  There’s a trigger that you have to squeeze, you bloody wanker…
                “Yeah, but…”

“Sweet Lord Jesus, are you fucking with me?  Just use the fucking vid jack and use the digital fucking overlay.  It’s not that complicated, rookie, now get to it.  They’re probably already running over here,” he shouted before looking down at his ankle.  It was bent at the totally wrong angle and Norris slammed the ground with his fist.  It was such a stupid thing to happen.  No one even killed him this time.

Jenkins carried the rifle over to the wall and set it up against a pile of rubble.  He found the vid jack and pulled it out of the rifle.  Jenkins plugged the cord into the auxiliary port on his helmet and could suddenly see the vast expanse beyond the wall.  He laid down and readied the rifle before looking for the Krakens.  Norris was right and they were running from one piece of cover to the next.  Jenkins was anxious; he had never had to use the sniper rifle before and this was definitely not the place to learn. 

He did what he could to center his aim over one of the soldiers and while the man was running across the field he pulled the trigger.  The recoil was almost enough to make the gun jump out of his hands, but he held it down and tried to readjust his aim.  He looked for the man he had just shot at and was relieved by what he saw.  It was no head shot, but the man had been shot through a gap in the armor by the shoulder and was spun around by the impact.  He was just lying on the ground and writhing in pain.  For now he was definitely not someone to worry about.

The young Crow looked around for the other soldier and suddenly he was filled with dread.  Not only was the man within fifty meters, but he knew where Jenkins had been hiding.  The Crow only just happened to notice the muzzle flare of the slave soldier’s rifle before he instinctively tried to become part of the floor.  After a moment he brought his head back up and looked through the scope.  He was confused and wondered where the soldier had gone. The young Crow was still looking around the battlefield when he saw the grenade sail past him and Norris and land in the opposite corner of the room.  The grenade fragmented into a hundred pieces and the two Crows did what they could to make themselves smaller targets.  Luckily, the fragments weren’t able to pierce through their armor and Jenkins went back to looking through the scope.

Jenkins noticed far too late that he could hear the man’s footsteps echoing through the stairwell.  He wasn’t gingerly approaching like Norris had; he was bounding up each step.  He had rounded the top of the stairs and had trained his rifle on Jenkins, who was still confused by the scope overlay and had not brought up his weapon.  Jenkins was dead to rights and he knew it.

Luckily, the Kraken had not noticed Norris lying there with his broken ankle and was entirely surprised when the Englishman unloaded half of his pistol clip into the man’s helmet.  The wall behind him became a gory mess and Norris smiled as the soldier fell back down the stairs.  Jenkins watched as the wounded soldier smiled and tried to sit up.

He’s a monster, but at least he’s on my team
, Jenkins thought before he walked over to the soldier.  He yanked out the vid cable from his helmet and laid down the rifle nearby the Englishman.  The soldier looked over at Jenkins and smiled before changing his expression and slapping the man in the helmet and continuing to slap his shoulders as he backed away.

“You are a fuckin’ idiot!  ‘
I don’t know how to use it
,’” he said before launching into an exaggerated imitation of idiocy.  “You almost died there because you couldn’t shoot a weapon right.  You’re lucky I can compartmentalize this shit,” he said before pointing to his ankle.  Jenkins hunkered down on his ankles and bit his lip.

“How bad is it?”  Norris looked at him with disdain and shook his head.

“I’ll put it this way.  If Roberts gave you some extra pills, just go ahead and give ‘em to me,” Norris said before sighing.  Jenkins shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck.  He tried to think about what they were going to do, now.  They should probably change position after this, but Norris wasn’t going to be easily moved.  He looked at the Englishman, who looked like he was coming to grips with it all.

“Should we try to set it?”  Norris didn’t even look at the young soldier before laughing weakly.

“No reason to.  It’d just hurt like the devil come early and they’d still inject me with their fancy drugs.  Just help me get over to that wall,” Norris said while pointing at his old position.  Jenkins shrugged as he realized that there was no dignified way to get the man across the room.  The young Crow put his arm under the man’s legs and the other behind his back and lifted.  He was heavy, but the suit definitely helped.  Norris winced at the movement, but didn’t object to the action.

“My hero.  Guess I’ll have to introduce you to my hand.”  Jenkins let out a forced laugh as he walked over to the north wall.

“You can keep her.  I’m sure she’ll console you,” Jenkins said before placing the Englishman near an opening in the north wall.  Norris laughed and motioned towards his rifle.  Jenkins walked over to grab it and looked at the soldier as he was returning.  Despite what had just happened, the sniper was still trying to smile.

“That she will.”  Jenkins gave the rifle back to the man and backed off towards the support beam.  He watched as the Englishman started to set the rifle back up in the same position.  Norris sat back against the wall just as before and raised his eyebrows.

“So I guess it’s back to story time.”

“Shouldn’t we try to get out of here?” Jenkins asked.  He was sitting with the damaged sniper but all he wanted to do was get out of the house.  The place was compromised and soon enough there would be another wave of soldiers and he didn’t think they would be so lucky again.  Norris just shook his head.

“No way I’m going anywhere.  I can’t even cross the room.  I’ll just stay here and when they arrive I’ll knock off a few heads.  Could be much worse.  Anyway, like I said.  Give me your story again but do a better job.”  Jenkins sighed and felt the pain filling his nasal passage again.  He didn’t know what to tell the Englishman.

“Do you really want to know?  It’s really just what I’ve told you.”

“Look, mate, I got plenty of time to kill.  Just let me know about all the things that lead up to when I saw your bright and shining face in the barracks,” Norris insisted.  Jenkins knew the soldier wasn’t going to budge.  He leaned back against the support beam and breathed out.

“I was smuggling some tech with a couple guys from my gang.  It was just supposed to be some microchips or something.  Just computer parts.  The guys who were supposed to pick us up got held up or something, I never got the story from them.  Cops showed up and threw us into jail.  I didn’t even get a chance to make a deal or anything.  My so-called friends left me high and dry and I took the blame for the whole thing.  I got into the system and the judge was lenient on me because he knew I was just a street kid.  I didn’t have anything going for me.  So he offered me the deal to come here and I took it because I was a dumbass.”  Jenkins looked at the floorboard underneath and thought about the memories he had just described.  They seemed so distant.  He didn’t regret any of it because he didn’t feel like he did it.  As he sank into despair he barely even noticed the pain in his head anymore.  The Englishman was looking down and shaking his head.

“Mate, you’ve either had the most boring life I’ve ever heard or you’re leaving something out.”  Jenkins shrugged and looked back at the floor.

“There really is nothing else.  I just spent most of my life trying to get money and respect.  It was basically over before I could get it started.  Now it just feels like it didn’t even happen to me.”  Norris sighed and looked beyond the wall of the building.

“I can ... sympathize with that, I guess.  Still, not very entertaining.”  Jenkins looked at the Englishman and knew that he wanted to ask something before the Krakens came down on them.  He just needed to know.

“Norris, you don’t seem like you’re all that different from your stories.”  Norris turned and laughed at the statement.

“That’s because I haven’t really changed, mate.  Best ones never do,” the Englishman said before winking.  Jenkins started to feel uncomfortable about the question, but he figured this would be the best place to ask.  Norris seemed to be in an honest mood.

“They say that you used to be quiet; that you used to be kind and sweet when you first got here.”  Norris narrowed his eyes and sat back against the wall.  He knew something was up with Jenkins and was curious as to what the young soldier would say next.

“They say things, don’t they?  What’s it matter to you?”  Jenkins shifted in his seat and he realized he just had to blurt it out.  This wasn’t going to come naturally.

“They say the scientists changed you.  They say that they turned you into a monster,” the young soldier said before immediately regretting it.  Jenkins desperately wanted to throw the words back into his mouth, but he knew that he had tied his hands, now.  He really did want to know the truth about all this, even if it was uncomfortable to talk about.

“That certainly is a lot to say.  Let me ask you, if they did modify my brain or behavior or whatever, why wouldn’t they take away my memories or just turn me into a different man?  Why would I be able to tell you anything with confidence, eh?  Did you think about that before you asked these questions of yours?”  Jenkins felt ashamed and he didn’t have an answer for the soldier.  He was about to speak but then Norris went on.

“The whole thing is bullshit, Jenkins.  I’ve always been like this.  And not a bloodthirsty sort, that’s not what I’m talking about.  I’ll admit; I had a fair amount of depression when I first got here.  I tried to make friends by being nice and a whole other load of nonsense.  But then I realized that even in this prison of ours I can still grab hold of my life and make it the best I can.  It comes back to what I said earlier, rookie.  I’m going to do what I’m going to do, and I’m going to try to have fun with it.  And really, when you turn off the part of your brain that says it’s immoral to kill and whatnot it definitely makes it easier.  I accept it.  That doesn’t make me a monster, Jenkins, and I don’t appreciate all those rumors about my ‘behavior modification.’  I kill people who get right back up in a few hours.  Morality doesn’t enter into it.  I’m allowed to enjoy what I am allowed to have.”