Soldier of Time

XII: A Preview of the Show

Two days had passed since the exercise, Simon was walking around the house, and everyone was talking about him, everyone knew what they had achieved, and that was the topic of conversation.

In the house, many soldiers lived together, and some spoke with him, but not Karen, the girl secluded herself and did not exchange ideas with the young people excluding them from work, which frustrated the Deer, but Simon knew that was what would happen.

While he waited, he enjoyed the common areas of that huge mansion, trying to get information from the soldiers, but that job was not going very well either.

All the soldiers who were now under Karen’s orders had different guards and shifts in that gigantic complex. However, they still had time to haunt the great house on the shifts that they were resting.

During the two days following the exercise, the young mercenaries had been taken in different ways by the soldiers, and many looked at them as stars capable of doing things that they could only imagine in their minds.

While others took them for idiots who used their incredibly polished skills to test nonexistent points with less experienced soldiers.

Karen avoided any interaction with them, even when the Deer tried to converse with her about the secret she held, she always found a way to avoid contact, and this led the Deer to an alarming level of concern.

After two days, he decided that it was time to confront her without giving her a chance to escape, and he went to the central building where the soldiers had told him that she had an office.

The mercenaries entered in the anteroom to Karen’s office together and found Jolanda sitting at a small desk incessantly typing loudly into her computer with such concentration that she did not notice her presence until they spoke to her.

“Good morning Jolanda,” Simon kindly greeted as he placed his hands on the desk and leaned over to see the girl better, and then asked cheekily, “How are you today?”

The girl looked at the young man with a smile and her eyes rising out of the limit of the lenses of her glasses. She leaned back from the back of her chair and adjusting it, and she answered, “Simon, the most popular man in the big house.”

The boy made a face of uncertainty as the adorable secretary smiled and said, looking at him mischievously, “Yes, all the soldiers do not stop talking about how cute that mercenary seems to them.”

“Why am I not surprised?” Slevin asked as he crossed his arms over his chest while looking at Simon, “You are never invisible to women.”

“It certainly isn’t, although you don’t go unnoticed. There is someone who talks about you all the time... although you may not like what she says.”

“Karen!”

“Exactly!”

“She is the reason we came.”

“She does not stop talking about how conceited you are,” Jolanda said, amused, but her smile faded as she continued to speak, “She seriously hates you. At first, I thought she felt threatened. But now I know that she hates you.”

“Maybe I deserve it...” Slevin said with a helpless smile. He then looked at the floor of the office, and one could see his displeasure at the opinion presented by the secretary.

The young man overcame himself the best he could and, looking directly at the secretary, said, “That’s why I’m here… we are. We need to talk to Karen.”

The secretary looked both from milestone to milestone, her glasses slipping and forced her to look at the boys on her saddle, and this made the woman much older than she really was.

“Guys, she won’t be able to.”

“Come on, Jolanda!” Simon said, trying to sound desperate, “this really is important.”

“Guys, it won’t be possible. She’s not here now,” Jolanda said with a frown.

The young people looked at each other. Slevin looked back at the secretary and then asked, “Where is she, Jolanda?”

The woman looked genuinely surprised. She took her glasses and placed them on her desk while she wrung her nose with her other hand. When looking at the boys without glasses, they both saw the beauty of her eyes.

“I am honestly surprised that you do not know. I thought you were the ones who had advised her to carry out this mission.”

“Mission?” Both men asked in unison.

The girl looked at them even more surprised and added, “The Chancellor’s assistant said that you would come to collaborate with Hanibal’s capture. I thought you were the ones who advised the Lieutenant to follow this lead.”

This time it was Slevin who leaned over the young secretary’s desk.

“What clue? What are you talking about, Jolanda?” He demanded. There was a foreboding feeling on his chest.

The girl looked at them, this time with great concern, and taking her glasses again, she searched her computer, typing promptly, and said, “A couple of days ago, an anonymous notice arrived that Hanibal would be collecting his payment for the work with the Chancellor here in the central city. The message said that today would be the day of the exchange.”

Slevin was stunned for a second, and he looked directly into Simon’s eyes.

With a frown, Simon responded to his thoughts by speaking out loud, “Hanibal King, the greatest murderer in the entire country, collect his work for what would be the most important murder in the history of the Nation, in the city where he will commit the crime? Cash? In the middle of the day? And incidentally, he let someone report to the authorities?”

Slevin was looking at his companion thoughtfully.

But it was the young secretary who said, “If you put it like that, it sounds very unlikely.”

“Not only is it unlikely!” Slevin swiftly responded, fixing his gaze on the wood of the secretary’s desk, “It’s stupidly impossible, unless...”

Suddenly he raised his gaze violently and said to Jolanda in an agitated voice.

“Jolanda! I need the time and place where the payment will take place!”

The girl looked at him for a second, and the urgency of his question was clearly expressed in his gaze.

The young woman looked a little more at the computer screen and said hurriedly, “Velanoba, Square of the renovation. At two in the afternoon.”

Just as she said that Slevin shot out of the office, barely giving the girl time to finish her words.

Simon yelled a little articulated, “Thank you,” and followed Slevin immediately.

Both left the building and looked for vehicles that they could board, but in the internal parking lot of that place, all the vehicles were granted by the soldiers.

The young people came to the booth where the two girls in charge of registering the use of the house’s vehicles worked.

The girls saw both mercenaries rushing there urgently, the Deer did not want to waste time and was going to shout what he needed, but Simon timely interrupted him and said, “Good afternoon, ladies, we need a vehicle.”

The girls smiled at each other.

“Lieutenant Karen’s orders,” Simon added before they could respond.

“Okay, darling, but we need the written order,” a girl said who played with her hair while she spoke, and on her shirt hung a plaque with Clara’s name on it.

“Clara, beautiful, this is an urgent matter. We need those keys. Call Jolanda, and she will gladly give you the order.”

The girl picked up the phone and dialed an extension. She said several words on it, and when she hung up, she said, “Ms. Jolanda said to tell you the following,” the girl said as she went to the key panel and took it. “Good luck, children. I’ll talk to Lucio.”

And with that, the young woman handed over the keys, the boys took it and fled to the car, not before Simon smiled at her and gave a very affectionate thank you to the girl in the booth.

They both got into the car and headed to the site where the payment would take place.

There were still twenty minutes to go, but there was no time to lose. While the car accelerated, Simon asked, “Do you really think Hanibal will be there?”

Slevin glanced at him with some nervousness in his eyes and said, “Simon, Hanibal planned this delivery. That anonymous data was sent by him.”

“Do you think he’ll kill them all?” Simon asked seriously.

“I do not know.”

Simon gritted his teeth before muttering, “Man, we are not prepared...”

“That, I know well,” Slevin forced a smile as he looked at the road. He knew this was a bad idea, but leaving Karen to her fate was not right.

Hanibal had made his move, and Slevin had no choice but to fall into it completely.

Karen had placed her soldiers strategically. The delivery, according to her informant, would be made in that square at the outside tables of a cafe called Velanoba.

The girl arrived very early and planted her different teams in strategic places to prevent any kind of escape. The Lieutenant’s mind echoed with the words of the Chancellor’s assistant, who recommended that she rely on the mercenaries that he had arbitrarily hired.

Two condescending idiots who believed they were right about everything, not even crazy, would she risk such an important mission in the hands of two delusions who wanted to scare her.

She still wondered how the Deer had managed to determine her ability and defeat her with such ease, but still, she understood that defeat was not a trend.

Karen knew Hanibal was dangerous, but her training was designed to beat men like him. Even if the Deer was right, there was no reason to think that she was not enough to defeat this psychopath. She had trained with the strongest men in all of the Nation.

Hanibal and Slevin were nothing more than ruffians who believed they could surpass the power of the royal guard. Illusions.

When she tamed the great assassin, she would show that not only was the Deer wrong, but the Chancellor’s assistant had been an i***t in requesting his help.

At ten minutes to two, everything was ready. Two teams of snipers covering the square were positioned while at both exits from the square, and there were two cars with the rest of their men there.

He also had men in the premises surrounding the place, and everything was perfectly covered. No one could escape from that place. No one could escape it.

“Pre-check ready to go. Team one?”

Karen asked over her radio.

“Team one in position and ready, Lieutenant.”

“Team two?”

“In position and ready, lieutenant.”

“Team three?”

“In position”

“Team four?”

“Covering the second exit, in position.”

“Everyone prepare for the confrontation, minus five minutes to start.”

Everything seemed to be in position, the square was covered, and the minutes passed with unusual slowness. When one minute was missing to two in the afternoon, a man appeared at the outside tables of the restaurant.

The place was not empty, but luckily it was not crowded only a couple of tables were occupied. The square that had a squared shape was perfectly guarded. Only two car entrances were covered.

The newcomer seemed nervous. In his hand, a briefcase and his poorly arranged suit stood out in that place. He walked and sat at a table away from the rest of the customers.

He ordered a coffee and began to wait. Three more minutes passed, and Karen was about to check her teams again when she saw something she really couldn’t believe. Slevin was taking a seat at the newcomer’s table.

The girl looked at him from afar, and he seemed calm, his hair tied in a black ponytail, and his long-sleeved T” shirt rolled up at the elbows, she did not care if she disrupted the plan, and he began to walk.

Meanwhile, at the table, Slevin asked, “Came here to deliver money, sir.”

The young man saw it and placed a small briefcase on the table.

“Here it is. Please don’t hurt her.”

Slevin looked at the briefcase, and a second before she could ask her next question, Karen arrived and took it, facing the man who was there, leaving only one seat free at that table for four.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She demanded while glaring at him.

Slevin saw her and said, “Withdraw your men. This guy is a hostage, and you’re putting everyone at risk.”

But the young woman raised her arm and, with an accusing index finger placed on Slevin’s face before he yelled, “Don’t intervene! I can perfectly handle this!”

“You do not understand—”

But Slevin couldn’t finish his sentence. At that moment, someone was pulling the remaining chair to sit. A slim man with a good physique and strong blue eyes, light brown hair, and a bright smile appeared.

The Deer held his breath for a second. That man placed his perfectly manicured and clean hands on the table to say.

“Deer! Just when I thought this would all be boring.”

Slevin swallowed loudly. The man next to him, confused and scared, was holding the briefcase with one hand while Karen looked at the man sitting in front of Slevin.

“Hanibal!” Slevin said, hoping that Karen had the communication channel open to inform the shooters, “I hoped not to have to see you again.”