Kazin

"Kaz!"

I stir at the sound of my name. Someone is shaking me furiously on the shoulder.

"Kaz, wake up!"

I manage to open my eyes. Dad is kneeling right beside me. When he sees that I've woken up, he lets out an audible sigh of relief. He hugs me tightly as I begin breathing heavily, nearly hyperventilating. I look frantically around me, searching for any trace of Taiki or Baku.

"You're okay, kiddo," Dad reassures me, squeezing my body tightly against his own. "You're okay."

We're in a huge warehouse of some kind, stacked with crates and boxes of fine liquors. The floors are of concrete, and there are a huge set of steel double doors against the far wall. I'm lying on the ground, leaning against Dad. I quickly try to sit up.

"Where am I?" I mumble.

"In the warehouse that Hazgal and I share for our business," Dad says. "We'll be safe here."

Another man marches into the area. He's a huge guy, built like an armored combatCrawler, with immense shoulders and arms. He has a chest that could break through walls. His hair is black and cut short in the military style. He's holding a crackler in one hand, probably illegally obtained.

"Don't worry, Kaz," Dad reassures me. "This is Hazgal. You remember me telling you about Hazgal, right?"

I nod, thankful that this guy is on our side.

Hazgal gives me a crooked smile. "About damn time I met Kashniro's kid. We'll have a proper introduction later." He turns to Dad. "We gotta get out of here, Kash. It won't be long before Shampai and Kargu send more of their Contractors out here to finish the job. And the blackHats too. They can't be trusted either."

"You said that Shora was with the blackHats?" Dad asks worriedly.

Hazgal nods. "Not with me—at some place in Meradon Hills. That's what I overheard, anyways. I don't know where she's headed to, though." He crosses his arms and frowns. "Why don't you just get in touch with the Councilor? She'll be damned worried about you, most like."

Dad shakes his head. "We can't tell her anything until we discover who the rat in the force is."

"Are you even sure there's a mole?" Hazgal asks incredulously.

"I'm sure," Dad snaps. I've never seen him like this, all nervous and apprehensive. It's the most irritable I've ever seen him. He rubs his eyes. "Shit. Sorry, Hazgal. I'm just tired."

Hazgal smashes Dad on the back with a huge hand. "Hey, no worries, Kash. I'm not the one who just got their kid abducted by Joryoku. I can take a bit of flak."

"Thanks, Hazgal," Dad says. His voice is tired, his face is grey with exhaustion. "Look, there's a reason they wanted to hold the meeting at Chairman Gato's own house. Those estateTowers inside Indato are basically fortresses. Nothing goes in, nothing gets out. Ever." Dad glances at me quickly. "And they even went after my own kid to get to me."

"And you think they did this because you knew too much?" Hazgal asks quietly.

"Yeah," Dad answers.

Hazgal nods. "Alright. Anyways, we'd best be getting outta here in the meantime." He lifts a huge case off the ground. I think it's filled with weaponry. "You know, Kash," he adds, "it's probably best if we get out of the Tri-City area altogether for now. Lay low, until things with the Kargu clan die down." He glances over at my dad. "We can leave tonight, bud. I have a safehouse in a town only a couple of hours from the city. We can regroup and rethink our next moves. Find a way to get in touch with Shora."

Dad falls silent for a while. His brow is wrinkled, and he appears deep in thought, as if his life depends on it. It probably does, I think.

"If we leave, we'll lose all the ground we've gained until now," Dad warns Hazgal.

"I know, bud," Hazgal urges. "But it's worth it. We'll live to fight another day, and there's always another day to fight. And that's only if we live. A big IF, my friend."

Dad sighs. "Alright. Just, let's stop by my place at Shirumo. Let's at least get the data chip."

Hazgal places a heavy hand on Dad's shoulder. I realize just how huge this guy is--he's one and a half times my dad's height, and Dad is not a small guy. "Bud, that'll be the first place they search. You got your kid here. We're all safe for now. That's all we need to restart. We can retrieve that data again somehow. Later."

Dad sighs heavily. "You're right, Hazgal. Damn, but it is good to have you around. We always did make a good team."

"Damn right, we did!" Hazgal roars. "Alright then, let's get us a good, warm ramen when we get there. I know a place in town, open twenty-four hours."

"You ready, kiddo?" Dad says. He helps me to my feet, and we follow Hazgal to the rear of the warehouse, behind all the countless boxes of liquor. Sitting there is a Haranoga hovercar, matte black in color. But it's no normal Haranoga, I realize. It's been modded until it's nearly unrecognizable to the untrained eye—even I only knew it was a Haranoga because of the distinct hexagonal grille at the front, and I only know that because I'm a motorhead. The body's been plated with steel, and there are grooves and lines all along the body that I can tell slide open. There are even tracks installed on the bottom, the kind you can find on older combatCrawlers.

"For personal taste," Hazgal says with a grin. "I like me some vintage gear. And out of here," Hazgal points at the grooves and lines, "comes out more firepower than you'll find in a stratTroop combatCrawler. I'll show ya later, kid. Kash tells me you're a fellow motorhead." He winks at me. I think I like Hazgal.

When Dad and Hazgal are finished loading their things into the hovercar, the doors open in gullwing fashion—another custom modification. I climb into the backseat. The interior has been changed as well. There are screens everywhere: radar, computers. It looks more like a flightCraft cockpit than it does the inside of a hovercar.

Hazgal inserts his cTab into the socket on the dashboard, and the hovercar revs up.

"You have a scrambler on this thing?" Dad asks.

"They wouldn't be able to track us even if we were hovering right below them," Hazgal assures us. He motions at the several screens and buttons. "This is all gear from my mercenary days, after I left the clans. Top-tier stuff."

"Good," Dad says with a curt nod.

"Alrighty, then," Hazgal says, rubbing his hands. "Two hours and fifteen minutes to destination. Let's go!"

Hazgal presses a button, and the warehouse roof opens overhead. The car powers up, and I feel a sense of vertigo as the boosters hurtle it into the air. My stomach drops to my feet, and I almost let out a scream; I control myself though, because I don't want to come off as an amateur to Hazgal.

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The hovercar enters the bottommost lane for the vehicles traveling at the slowest speeds. Hazgal ramps up the horizontal boost, and the car gains momentum. As the number climbs on the speedometer, so does the Haranoga's altitude—Hazgal soon elevates the hovercar into the twentieth hoverlane, reserved for the cars traveling above 200 knots.

Now that I've recovered from my initial shock, I ask Dad. "How did you guys find me?"

Dad looks back from the passenger seat and smiles, the first time this night that he's given a genuine smile.

"Well, we got Hazgal to thank for that," Dad says. "When I got your call, I was close to the Meradon District, which is where I was supposed to have my meeting originally. Good thing I listened to you too, because Meradon was a ruse. They were planning on taking me to Chairman Gato's compound in Indato."

"Chairman Gato? Is that Sangsum's dad?"

"Yeah, the chairman of the Shampai Group." Dad smirks as he says this. "Low bastard, sold me out to the Kargu. Well, when I didn't show to the meeting, things got crazy. Hazgal got cornered by some Contractors down in Byanza Quarter, until some blackHats showed up to save the day."

"Except they didn't," Hazgal growls. "They placed me under arrest, and kept asking me where you were. Told them I didn't know. Couldn't get out until Commissioner Akato himself came in and let me go."

"It's a good thing Akato came by," Dad says.

"It was," Hazgal chuckles. "Akato's constables had discovered your whereabouts, Kazin. Before he let me go, Akato told me to find you first. So I guess, in a way, kid, you owe your thanks to Commissioner Akato."

"Sorry that you had to go through that, Hazgal," Dad says. "There were a couple of loose ends I had to tie up once I found out that Shampai had betrayed us."

Hazgal shrugs his massive shoulders. "No biggie."

We're cruising in the interTravel lane now, and we've shed the city. There are mostly mountains and forest beneath us. It's a sight that I feel a good amount of nostalgia for. I grew up in a place like this, where it's calm and we're surrounded by forests where the trees are of wood, rather than the manmade jungles of glass and steel. A sense of calm settles in my mind, and my experiences from earlier in the night are only a dull echo, though they still remain.

"Dad?" I begin. "Why was I taken? What's going on?"

There’s a tight silence. "I shouldn't tell you," Dad begins hesitantly.

"I have a right to know," I demand. "I was kidnapped, and I'm pretty sure that the guys who took me were serious about killing me too." I swallow hard as I gather up my courage. "I want to be a part of this. I always thought you were some sort of salesman”—Hazgal guffaws thunderously at this remark—"but obviously you're something more than that. Let me be a part of your work."

Dad looks at me worriedly. "It's dangerous, Kaz. It would make me feel a lot better if you didn't take part in it."

I decide to stand my ground. "Dad, I almost died today, and I'm not even a part of it now."

"We both know you can't keep him safe forever, Kash," Hazgal inserts himself cautiously. "The kid's right. It's better if he goes with us from safehouse to safehouse and learns how to protect himself in the process. It's better he knows everything so he's aware of the dangers, rather than being kept in the dark and inevitably sucker-punched by our enemies."

"Damn, but he's my son," Dad says quietly.

"I can tell," Hazgal says. "He's got that silent, reserved fire in him, just ready to flare up. Weren't you around his age when you joined the clans?"

Dad remains quiet while he thinks.

"Alright kiddo," Dad finally says. "There are a lot of things I need to tell you, though, so let's wait until we get to Hazgal's safehouse, alright? There are still parts of the puzzle that I need to piece together."

I nod, satisfied. They can't see me smiling in the darkness of the hovercar. "Cool."

We've traveled for a while when Hazgal starts lowering the altitude. I can no longer see the city behind us—we’re deep in the countryside now. This far into the boonies, it's usually more advantageous to drive down on the asphalt roads that cars traveled on before the era of hover tech. It’s a rare case that a smaller town has been reconstructed to accommodate hovercar travel, so landing and taking off is a headache in most circumstances. Hovercars in these parts attract a lot of attention as well; and in our predicament, it would be very unwanted.

Hazgal lowers the Haranoga slowly onto the ground, and he disengages the boosters and activates the track. We're traveling smoothly along the roads now. I always enjoyed this feeling—it feels vintage and antique, somehow, and like I've been taken back in time—especially due to the fact that we're traveling on track instead of wheels, I find myself imagining myself a trooper in one of the older wars, heading into some unknown mission or battle.

We drive through a road that winds up the mountain, and we finally reach the town. It is a small town, of cubic buildings and houses that are only one or two stories high at most. The tallest building in town is three floors high, apparently a supermarket and shopping center all in one. Hazgal drives to the very end of the town. His safehouse is on the outskirts, in a small clearing of trees.

"Let's drop our stuff off and switch cars first, before ramen," Hazgal suggests.

"Good idea," Dad agrees.

I glance up and drink in the sight of the moon and stars. You can't see these things in the city. Hazgal drives into a large wooden shed that serves as his garage. He and Dad begin unloading the car, while I familiarize myself with the place. When they're finished, we head out of the shed and trek deeper into the woods on foot.

"I was supposed to retire here," Hazgal says. "For me and Nera, once I was finished with the clans."

Dad nods somberly, and I begin wondering what happened to this Nera.

Finally, we reach the safehouse—it’s more of a fortified cabin. It's surrounded by walls topped with plasma fencing. We step through the gate, and we cross a yard before reaching the doors to the cabin. Hazgal brings out his cTab to unlock them. They creak open, and I follow Dad and Hazgal as they disappear into the dark room. Then suddenly, I run into Dad's back. They've stopped in their tracks.

"Well, I'll be damned," Hazgal growls. "How did you know about this place?"

I try to look around Dad and Hazgal, and I see who they're staring at. The doors lead right into the living room—a man is sitting on the couch there. He's wearing a constabulary uniform, and he has black hair and purple eyes. He seems to be around Dad's age. He stands and saunters over to the front door.

The man grins. "Now, Hazgal, is that any way to greet the man who deactivated your plasma cuffs not five hours ago?"

Dad steps out of his shoes and steps up onto the wooden floor. "Akato." The two men shake their hands like old friends. "Unexpected company, to be sure, but not unpleasant. You look tired. How about a drink?"

"I'll take whiskey, if you have it," Akato says. "It's been a long day."

Dad turns to me. "Hey kiddo, can you help Hazgal with the rest of the stuff while I get Akato a drink?"

I nod, and I follow Hazgal out to the gateway. We gather up the last of the boxes in our arms and make our way back to the cabin. Hazgal walks in first, and he takes the rest of the boxes from me as well.

"Lock the doors as you come inside, kid," Hazgal says to me. "Never know who else is out there."

I nod. Before I return inside, I take a deep breath of that fresh forest air. The scents of the musty woodiness work as a salve to my soul, and I feel at peace. It's been a long day for me too. I look at the sky, but I can no longer see the stars, as if they've been smudged out by black ink in one part of the sky.

That's weird.

As I close the cabin doors, I think I see a flicker of blue and turquoise lights in the sky. I rub my eyes, and the sky has returned to its form as a shadowy void. I think nothing of it, and I shut the doors behind me.