Soldier of Time

LXI: Mercenary 3 (1)

The waves of a calm ocean echoed the laughter that filled the ship. The Deer smiled with an ease that he had never experienced. Amber’s touch was delicious to him, and life had meaning right now.

Both young people embraced under the sheets, and the cabin had witnessed a consummate desire, a fantasy that had lived for years. Those walls had finally seen that fantasy come true.

The Deer observed the eyes of the woman he loved, and these eyes were also flooded with happiness. It was unmasked, as with the way he was grinning from ear to ear.

Their naked bodies came into contact with all sanity, and in their consciences, there was no room for urgencies.

Amber was getting closer and closer to the Deer, and he said between laughter and hugs, “You can’t get closer...” He was, of course, just teasing her.

“Do not challenge me,” the young woman replied with narrowed eyes but was still smiling. She added, “I can do whatever I want now...”

The Deer put her hair away from her face and kissed her constantly, bearing the desire to do so was impossible, and when it was not he who was looking for the young woman’s mouth, it was she who incited her kiss.

Everything seemed perfect, but suddenly the eyes of the Deer were planted in his weapon that was in one of the night tables.

The girl followed his gaze and seeing what she saw, and she knew what he was thinking.

She took his jawbone between her fingers and brought his sight to her, then she kissed him and said, “I know you have to go. But I don’t want to let you...”

“If you ask me to stay. I’ll stay,” Slevin responded casually.

The young woman looked into the eyes of the Deer with determination and said, “You just have to beat him, right? You’ve done that before, right?”

The Deer looked at her with a bitter smile. He then said, “It is not such a simple task, love. I only managed to do that once.”

Amber huffed and replied, “Well. You must repeat that feat.”

“It’s not that easy…” this time, the Deer’s voice grew thin.

The young woman kissed his cheek and asked, “How did you do it that time?”

“I already told you this story, Amber.”

“Tell it again. Perhaps we will sing something useful in it,” Amber insisted.

The young man looked at the girl and kissed her, after that he said.

***

It’s okay. Do you remember the work of the young dancer, the one that Mic entrusted to me?

Well, that job wasn’t easy. He had to protect that girl. Someone from one of the highest circles in society had paid good money to have her assassinated. The girl was the prima ballerina of a very important job, and to someone, that was extremely unacceptable.

I took the job because the fate that the young woman had to run did not seem fair to me, so I prepared the best I could to protect her. I perfectly knew who I was facing, and I remembered how I had defeated him the second time, but this time it had to be different—this time, I had to keep the threat away from the girl for much longer.

I planned a series of distractions that worked very well at that time, but the job was different for him, this time and for the first time in his career Hanibal King had assistants, of course not men like now who work for him. They were more like competitors.

I knew what would happen, so I got ready. Prepare lures and distractions, but none of that was enough. When I saw that that man came for me with people accompanying him, I knew that the distraction would not work as the previous times.

So I took the final option, run away with the young woman. One of the men under my charge and I escaped down a passage that led to the sewers. Those sewers led to a car deboner.

Hanibal had used his companions to dismantle all my distractions, and obviously, I supposed using his ability, he knew how we escaped. I knew that running we wouldn’t get enough distance. And if I decided to leave the man who was with me, I would not delay it long enough. The only option was for me to stay.

I sent the young woman with the fellow who was accompanying us and took my position in a long pile of destroyed cars. I took my rifle and pointed it in the direction we were coming from. I knew that sooner or later, Hanibal would appear there, and if I was lucky, I could kill him with the first shot.

A little over five minutes later, I began to hear the sounds of men’s footsteps coming down the tunnel. I put my eye on the peephole and waited for Hanibal’s face to appear, but it didn’t.

Three men appeared in the tunnel, it was obvious that one of them was Hanibal, but there was no way to identify him. All three men were tall and thin like him. All three had their faces covered and moved at the same time, making identification impossible.

I stopped time while I saw the men who were approaching, I tried to find some peculiarity that would tell me which of them would be Hanibal, but I couldn’t.

I thought for a long time, and after thinking so much about that idea, I came to the conclusion that I had to guess who he was. I looked at the image I had in front of me, and I knew that he would not be the man in the middle.

It was impossible for Hanibal to take such a basic option. I only had the possibilities of the lairs on the sides. Both could be, but it was impossible to distinguish.

I looked at the image for a long time, and since I couldn’t find any difference, I thought about which hand Hanibal was using to shoot me, and the answer both times was the right hand. The most logical thing is that he approached from his dominant side.

I freed up time, took a long puff, and aimed through the rifle sight at the guard running to the right side of the line. I took a breath and, without thinking about it, pulled the trigger.

The bullet said right on target, and the man dropped dead instantly. At the moment the bullet landed in the skull of that subject, the soldier in the middle turned and saw his partner fall.

I tried to target the soldier on the other side, but that one had not lost a second and had taken cover immediately. My rifle found on its way the soldier who still saw his friend fallen, and the bullets ended his sadness.

The remaining soldier, well-backed behind one of the cars on the ground, removed his mask showing strong yellow hair.

I had missed, Hanibal was the man on the other side, and when he realized the trap, he screamed, “This is nothing of your style, Deer!!”

I did not respond to his provocation, and I knew that he would come out at some point and had to be prepared for that moment.

“This is not your comfort zone at all!” The miserable blond yelled at me. “Instead of that, it’s mine!!”

And with those words, the man came out. I shot him with the rifle, but the killer changed his movement so abruptly that it was impossible to hit him. The subject fired two shots in my direction, and one of them hit the door of the car where I was sitting, and the other destroyed the rifle scope.

I dropped the rifle and came out with my pistol, the one on the table, and we started shooting at each other. Nobody hit the other.

I had used my power to try to predict the angle of his shot, I had done it before, and it worked. He surely used his power to avoid my shots. But the truth was, we both ran out of bullets, and he said.

“Let’s finish like men.”

And when saying that phrase, I took a knife out of his sheath. I had long since abandoned knives, the Deer’s horns were only for war, but this time I used them one more time. Taking advantage of the high ground, I jumped towards it.

He eluded me by rolling onto his back and got up. We both began to attack each other, the knives passed close to his skin, but they never hit. Nobody got the advantage until we stopped. I looked at him for a long minute, and he seemed somewhat confused.

At that time, he could only say the following. “You are the most complicated person I have ever fought with.”

And by saying that, he attacked me.