A cement warehouse with a makeshift ceiling of slanted tin sheets stood in the center of the square. A garage entrance and a rusted iron door with a dull knob were the options at the back. Fade decided to try the door and found it unlocked. Cool damp air swirled about inside. Dawn peered quietly through corrosion holes in the tin ceiling. Unsettled dust swirled about in rays of light. No shelves, no stacks, no boxes, just fifty square meters of unused floor space and one scurrying rat. Crimson boots put marks on the dust as Fade walked further inside. A series of narrow cone pillars supported the structure. Clicking came from the metal plank of an elevated walkway. The garage door opened behind him.
The old man with the crooked eyes entered with Snake. The sun shone behind them. Snake rolled up his sleeves to reveal arms tattooed with blue reptilian scales. The head of a snake tattooed on the top of his left hand with the tail dyed on the top of his right. The old man drew two squat silver handguns and immediately fired a blend of lasers and armor piercing bullets. Fade rolled behind the sparse cover of a support beam and pulled his laser pistol from his coat. Snake charged to punch the pillar before Fade could fire. It crumbled.
The uppermost half, smashed downward. Fade dodged into the open. The old man fired again; Fade sidestepped in range of Snake’s fist, which sent him sliding across the grimy floor until his back slammed against a cinder block wall. Fade recovered quickly to roll behind another support beam. He slid the laser pistol in its holster, drew his revolver, and fired. The old man dropped both his guns as bullet shards cracked his wrists.
The next shot, split by Fade’s scalpel technique, scored a direct hit through both Snake’s knee-caps. But the big man didn’t fall.
Snake ripped out the pillar and pulled it from the roof. In his arms the steel and cement support beam became like a giant baseball bat. Snake swung it, but Fade jumped over it, then pushed himself backwards while aiming his revolver. The second swing missed with inches to spare. Snake merited an entire bullet, which would have gone through his thick skull if the behemoth had not lifted a concrete pillar in front of himself. Fade heard movement behind him.
The leather heel of a fancy shoe kicked the back of his neck. The force sent him under the far end of the concrete pillar held by Snake, who smiled as he dropped it. Fade rolled away before it smashed apart on the floor. He aimed his revolver at the well-dressed young man with jet-black hair, Tigo Ganthor. Tigo smirked through thin lips; he held a black leather jacket over his back with one hand, and kept a conventional pistol aimed at Fade with the other.
“You want the girl’s old man, right?” Tigo said, “He’s waiting upstairs, but a little tied up at the moment.”
“Too bad he’s already dead,” Fade grinned.
“You can’t know that! If you did, why’d you come. Coming here means death for you, but you came anyway, even though we don’t have the bait. Not that it matters much now that your here, because you’re a dead man, but hey, to each his own.”
“Don’t overestimate yourself just because you’re former Spirit Guild.”
Tigo continued his smirk as he stared down the barrel of Fade’s revolver.
“You’re Tigo Ganthor, right? How does it feel to be a big time crime boss on a planet with nothing worth stealing?”
“You want to know? I’ll tell you. Hakkut is nothing more than a springboard. Now, you’re going to take a little trip to the Buldethian authorities after you die.”
“I’m not dead yet.”
Tigo fired and dodged, whereas Fade only dodged. Both men took cover.
“So, we’re equals at this game,” Tigo yelled from behind a pillar, “Too bad you have to reload soon.”
Snake picked up the steel rod from the crumbled cement beam like a halberd and thrust it at Fade’s cover, which forced him to dodge into a dark corner. Fade shuffled his feet as the beam stabbed for his chest. He dodged it to the left yet it came again quickly. One of the attacks tore the uniform under Fade’s coat. He felt the large bloody abrasion as metal filed skin. Every time Fade moved, the steel beam jabbed at him, and if he got too close it was swung at him. He retreated back in a corner, where he shifted to the side, temporally out of reach. He rolled behind a narrow pillar in the shadow and ducked low. Snake finally lost him. Fade breathed lightly to prevent being easily heard.
“Don’t forget poor Snake,” Tigo yelled, “If you so much as shuffle your feet he’ll locate and attack. You see, he’s what is known as a G-freak, a genetic enhancement gone horribly right, but not for you. Please excuse him for not introducing himself earlier, he’s rather shy.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“I can see that,” Fade said.
Another support beam crumbled through Snake’s power attacks, but Fade already ran for the other side of the warehouse. Snake batted him against the wall. Fade rolled behind the support beam in front of the door, only to stand up again.
“Impossible!” Tigo groaned, “Hit him again.”
“Heh,” Snake said, “I’m not stupid enough to let him escape.”
Snake threw the reinforced steel javelin at the door. Fade jumped on it. He darted, then jumped at Snake with his revolver ready. The first bullet ricocheted from between his eyes. The second lodged in the left eye, and the third went through the right eye. Fade emptied the blanks from the revolver, the click of shells into his palm echoed through the building. Despite the wounds, Snake didn’t fall; he stood moaning with his hands over his forehead. A loose ceiling panel dropped sideways with enough force to split that thick skull. Snake collapsed with a heavy thud that shoo the warehouse. Tin paneling rained over top of him.
The rain of panels helped Fade avoid Tigo’s gunshots as he slipped out the garage. Tigo felt a tin panel slam against his back, knock him down, and pin his body beneath it. Fade waited until the rubble settled and looked around. The old man, Tigo, and Snake were buried under the ruble. He was about to hike back when the panels shifted. The panel that had fallen on Tigo flew over the wall of the warehouse and crashed into the stone drive. Tigo lunged from the center of the rubble, only scratched. He kicked Fade into the driveway. The next kick saw Fade fly a few meters upwards. A spinning mid-air roundhouse sent him back into the debris.
“You’re impressive, mercenary. I suspect you were once guild material yourself. Too bad you’re so young, I’m far more experienced.”
Tigo aimed his fist at Fade’s shoulder, but Fade rolled before it connected and Tigo wound up punching the ground. The stones beneath Tigo’s fist broke with a small crater left.
“That wasn’t even near full power,” Tigo said.
Fade kicked him, rolled backwards, and jumped up. Both men were now on even guard. Tigo drew his weapon and began firing at close range. Fade dodged every shot with unnaturally nimble movements. Tigo threw the depleted weapon to the ground.
“Now it’s time for you to gain a few decades.”
A spherical crystal’s unmarred surface radiated the fairest blue light as Tigo lifted it from his jacket. Blood spewed from Tigo’s chest as a burn crisscrossed his clothes. The crystal fell from his cupped hands and rolled to Fade. Bert kept his model forty-two aimed because Tigo remained standing despite the wound.
“Don’t you have any pride? I thought you fought alone.”
“I used the laser pistol at full power,” Bert said, dismayed, “He should have been disintegrated. Hey, we got a bead on the crystal.”
“Already have it,” Fade said.
Tigo collapsed. Fade reloaded his revolver as he knelt over Tigo’s corpse.
“Go back to the transport and bring a blanket.”
“You want me to do what?”
“He’s guild. Just do it.”
“Waste of a blanket if ya ask me.”
Bert returned a few minutes later. Fade covered Tigo’s body and placed an implosion grenade at each end of the wreckage. The warehouse pulled together through gravitational implosion as the S119 flew from the city.
-----
Debris tapped against the hull as the S119 escaped Hakkut’s orbit. It was like trying fly between the rain drops. Molten lava gushed from the spout of Mount Caldera. The dual moons of Ameena and Dion continued their defiant eternal dance as they stretched the debris field. Once the transport navigated out of orbit, Fade set the newly captured crystal in a transparent case on the console.
“Is that the one he wants?” Bert asked.
“It’s the one he’s getting.”
“We were lucky enough to come across it.”
“It’s not luck, it’s skill.”
“Humble as always. Too bad we can’t sell it.”
“We’ll get a job,” Fade said, “They always seem to come along.”
“And barely keep us alive,” Bert said, finishing the sentence while pulling a cigarette from his pocket, “What are we going to do with Kitten?”
“I’m going to call a favor, get her set at the Imperial Technical Academy.”
“What? We’ll never pay that off.”
“I’ll get it done. It’s the least I can do. Besides, she has nowhere else to go. And it’ll get her out of the way. Women are nothing but problems. ”
“You’re tellin’ me.”
Nicole entered the bridge and stood behind Bert, “Talking about women like you know something?”
“What would you know, squirt?”
“Is this your first time, Fade?” Nicole asked.
“First time for what?” Fade asked
“The first time you’ve ever been in love?” Nicole asked slyly, “You seem to have it bad for your Sargeant. Soel wouldn’t have kidnapped her if he didn’t suspect something emotional.”
“You got it all wrong. I Don’t have emotions.”
“You’re right kid! Never thought of it that way. Geez, I think he’s even turnin’ a little red. Isn’t this special. I would’ve never guessed you was the type.”
“I don’t love anyone. Love is for those who don’t have anything better to do.”
Bert set the destination of the transport as Fade stared at the crystal.
Fade stood, “I’m going to take a rest. You two take over.”
Bert waited for him to leave and then started speaking, “The Imminent Destruction landed on Weift, in the Golan Star System. Fade arranged it that way. He keeps its exact coordinates tracked, but I do too. You can be sure of one thing. He cares enough to rescue Kitten before getting his cruiser back in order. That’s saying a lot. The ship is a money pit. It ain’t profitable but he’s tied to it. There was a connection between them. I should know. I was the only other living creature there before Kitten showed up. We had some good battles.”
“You know him well?” Nicole asked.
“I left the military to help him out,” Bert sighed, “Known him for almost ten years, when he was just a pup. An eleven year old killer. Hell, he’s still a pup.”
“He has a thing for that girl, doesn’t he?”
Bert frowned, “Who’s to say? I don’t pretend to know. I was just tryin’ to make him nervous. I make a habit of it. I’m not really the carin’ type either. I go with the flow.”
“I’m eager to find out.”
Bert gave her a look of consternation, “You got to be kiddin’! I ought to knock some sense into you. Maybe you have a little crush on Kitten yourself.”
“Don’t worry,” Nicole laughed, “I don’t.”