Soldier of Time

LXII: Mercenary 3 (2)

Young Amber watched Slevin’s face as she told her the tale. He seemed proud to have defeated Hanibal but facing him again was no fun.

The young woman looked at him, and she said, “I do not understand. How did you manage to beat him?”

The young man sighed before he responded, “I don’t know for sure, although I have a theory.”

“What theory?” Amber was puzzled.

The Deer looked at her, smiled, and told her, “I’ll tell you if it works again.”

After that, he got up and went into the bathroom, and after a quick shower, he got ready to leave.

He picked up Amber’s phone and called Simon from there. He talked to him for ten minutes, and then he went back to the room. The girl rolled up in the sheet on the bed, looked at him with a smile.

He sat next to her and said, “I must go... I’ll be back soon.”

The girl leaned towards him, kissed him, and responded, “I know.”     

The Deer got up and started walking when the young woman asked him, “How did you know that you would save yourself if you came? Did the doctors find anything in my blood that you haven’t told me about?”

The Deer stopped in surprise, turned on his heel, and then asked, “What makes you think that I knew that he would save me if I came?”

The girl opened her eyes and thought about answering but was speechless.

 The Deer approached her, kissed her, and then said, “When I knew I was going to die, I came. I didn’t want to leave without kissing you. I didn’t want to leave this life without doing what I always dreamed of. That is why I came.”

The young woman smiled, and small tears rolled down her cheek as she kissed the Deer, and after that, he left her.

Almost two hours later, the Deer was arriving at the place where the young people were, and it was no longer the National Security Headquarters. It was now a gigantic house in the upper part of the central city.

All the companions of the Deer were in that place. The Deer saw how everyone prepared in their own way for the confrontation to come, the first to face him was Troy.

“Are you okay?” The protector asked while looking at the Deer with a smile.

“Yes, I am,” Slevin replied back with a smile as well.

“So poison, right? Well, I’m glad you’re okay. We have a job to do.”

The Deer looked at Troy with a half-smile and curiously asked, “Were you worried about me?”

Troy changed his face to pure seriousness and began to see his hands as he said, “Not really. But the truth be told. Hanibal is a problem that I can’t handle alone.”

“Simon told me...”

“Tell me something, Deer... can you beat him?”

The Deer nodded and said as he started walking, “I did it once. And I hope I can repeat it for the good of all.”

Troy watched as the Deer walked away and went back to preparing himself. After that, Trixie watched him arrive and hugged him without warning.

The Deer returned the hug and, smiling, asked, “This is for what?”

“You helped save Jerome,” said the young woman while she was still hanging around the neck of the Deer. “I thank you very much.”

“That was nothing.”

“Too much for me.”

After that, the girl walked away from him and ran to the side of the room where Jerome was waiting for her. The boy saw the Deer, and with a smile, he nodded in gratitude.

The Deer received the gesture with a smile and continued.

In the continuous room, the Deer found Simon and Johan. Johan ate while Simon cleaned his weapon. Both raised their faces and smiled at the newcomer.

“How are you, Deer?” Johan asked. 

“How is Amber?” Simon asked, and then both burst into laughter.

The Deer shook his head and continued on his way.

Both returned to their activities not before Johan said, “I’m glad you’re back, man.”

The Deer raised his right hand and walked to a terrace that was occupied with Karen, she saw the city, and she contemplated the passing of the clouds slowly.

The Deer stood next to her and said, “So you have Hanibal’s location. That was an excellent move.”

The girl, without looking away from the landscape, said, “Maybe, but it was a strong sacrifice. If it weren’t for your damned luck, we would have lost you.”

“A sacrifice that leads to victory is a good sacrifice.”

“But that’s the problem, you know?”

The Deer looked at the young woman with a morose look and asked with a frown, “What is the problem?”

“Without you, we might not be able to win,” she replied seriously.

“Of course you are. You are very strong.”

“Yes, but neither Troy nor Johan fighting together could defeat the psychopath. What options do we have?”

“There is always something to do.”

“Slevin. I want you to lead the team in tonight’s assault.”

The Deer looked at Karen’s eyes that had turned away from the landscape and were now staring at him. The girl looked longing, and her gaze did not waver at her request.

“You are in charge. Why do you want me to lead?”

“It’s the right thing to do, and you have more experience against him. You know how to beat him.”

The Deer thought about the situation for a second and said, “Maybe, Hanibal is not the whole problem...”

The afternoon began to pass. The closer the night approached, everyone seemed more tense and quiet.

Simon continued his work of assembling his rifle and preparing the weapons for the attack.

Behind him, the young Trixie came and said, “You’ve been doing that all afternoon. I think they are ready.”

“I know. This helps me think.”

“What are you thinking about?”

“If we fail, there will be another war.”

“Yes, that’s terrible...”

“I know, the last war was not good for me.”

The girl was silent, and in a whispering voice, she asked, “Are you trying to redeem yourself?”

“Redemption is nothing more than a fantasy after what I did, but I owe this to the Deer, and I swear we will win...”

The girl placed her hand on the mercenary’s shoulder, and with the warmest voice she could conjure, she said, “Why do you think redemption is vetoed for you? What could you have done that was so terrible?”

Simon dropped the bullets that he placed in the magazine on the table, and with a sigh, he concentrated on her warm hand as he said, “I… I did something very bad. Something terrible that no one would ever forgive. No one except the Deer. I am indebted to him.”

“What could have been so terrible, Simon?”

“The platoon of child soldiers died. They all died because of me.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I betrayed them.”

The girl watched as the blond young man sunk his gaze into her hands. She wanted to ask, she wanted to know what had happened, but Troy and Karen called everyone to pay attention.

“Very good guys, today is the day,” Troy said while seriously looking at everyone present.  He added, “Today, we will not be strangers who cooperate. Today we will be a team.”

That last sentence fell on Jerome and Trixie, who nodded at that statement.

“Today, we will hear a single voice,” said Karen observing everyone. “Today, even us who lead will follow.”

Everyone nodded once more, and the voice that was heard this time was coming from across the room. A tall, slender young man with two Kukri knives behind him, several throwing knives tied to his leg, and a weapon on his belt.

The young soldier, the Deer, said, “Today, we will arrest the murderer. Today we will stop the misfortune. Today we will stop the war.”

Everyone was watching the Deer, who stood up and said, “Today, this story will end...”

The tracker marked a location on the computer, and everyone was about to go to it. Karen looked at the Deer, who seriously said, “Johan, find him...! He will no longer be able to hide from you.”

Upon hearing those words, Johan activated his powers, and he quickly found the essence of Hanibal.

That strong smell of iron and blood that tormented him when he slept, he decided to follow him intensely and found his location far from where they were.

“I got it!”

The Deer looked at Karen, she nodded and smiled, and he looked at the group and said, “We will mobilize to the location that Johan said, and they can no longer cancel our powers. There is no way to hide.”

They all nodded and began to move towards their vehicles when Karen approached the Deer to ask, “Then he will surely be waiting for us, won’t he?”

The young mercenary smiled, and looking at the girl, he nodded. Everyone was heading to the location that Johan marked them.

The Deer was in the passenger seat, and while he saw the night and the road in front of him, he asked, “Karen,” he said, attracting the attention of the young woman who was driving, “Who else knows about this plan? Who else did you tell?”