Soldier of Time

XLVII: Deer Season (2)

Hanibal, without losing his smile, approached her and, with a calm voice, said, “Maybe I don’t need you in there...”

The short-haired blonde girl climbed back into the driver’s seat, and Hanibal stared at Steven, the man in the suit.

“Come on, man, everything will be fine.”

Steven put on his glasses once more. He then looked at Hanibal with clear displeasure as he crossed his arms across his chest.

As he leaned back from the Van, he said distastefully, “I will follow you. But it is still a bad idea.”

Hanibal widened his smile and turned to the passengers of the Van, saying, “The Deer will come to the rescue, you know. When he does, we take him, and we leave. If we give him a lot of time to think, this will not work. Surprise is our weapon, understood.”

They all nodded, and then the young assassin looked at the red-haired girl next to him and said, “We’ll bring him back alive. Do not worry.”

The girl smiled sweetly, and then Hanibal said with a casual smile, “Unless we can’t… Now, start.”

The young woman lost the smile that she had a second before, and kneeling, and she placed her right hand against the ground, and out of nowhere under her palm, a thick mist began to grow.

The fog began to rise and spread throughout the block in the direction of the building where the young people were.

Steven started looking at his hand and said, “That ability is impressive.”

His gaze then shifted towards Hanibal before he added, “Treat her with respect, won’t you?”

Hanibal was lowering his glasses and winking at his friend. He said, “Very good guys. The Deer season begins.”

And the passengers of the Van got out to move towards the building.

While that was happening, the Deer and Karen were driving in the direction of the base.

They were both very quiet. From her little interaction last night, Karen felt the need to avoid Slevin’s gaze, who kept his taciturn and pensive posture.

The girl had barely spoken to him for what was necessary, and she thought that the mistake she had made the night before would complicate her work.

That idea racked her mind, and she thought that her duty was more important than her shame and firmly asked him, “Could Amber defend herself against the guy from yesterday? The one with the animal instincts.”

The Deer looked at her with confusion. That question had no reason to be, but his mind assumed that it was a way for Karen to study her own ability, and he decided to cooperate.

“Amber’s powers make her practically invincible, especially against super-sensitive ones, like Gary,” he explained with a thoughtful expression.  

Slevin’s gaze then shifted to Karen. When the Deer saw the girl trying to understand where that curiosity came from, he would do what she had asked and ignore what had happened the night before, but even so, that question was strange to him.

The girl, without taking her eyes off the road while she was driving, and when questioned further, “But without that strange ability, could I?”

“She is strong,” The Deer replied seriously. He then paused for a moment before he continued, “Now maybe not, but maybe before when I met her, that would be an interesting fight.”

The young woman bit her lower lip, but the Deer didn’t notice it, then she asked, “And tell me she could defeat you?”

“No,” Slevin replied with a bitter smile.

Karen’s eyes bulged. She could not believe what he said.

“How can you be so sure?” She asked with a puzzled expression.

“Because it already happened,” the Deer said while looking at Karen with a smug smile, “She and I already faced each other in our strongest state, and the winner was me. No loose ends.”

The girl looked at him, Deer, and curiously asked, “Why did you fight?”

“War stuff. You don’t choose who to fight. But your real question is. Can I beat Amber, right?” Slevin asked with a raised brow.

The girl looked at the Deer curiously, and the young man continued, “The truth is that at this moment, I do not know. The Amber now is very passive. She is no longer a warrior. No more, at least. But to the Amber of a few years ago. Not in your best moments.”

The girl felt a surge of anger rising inside her and said without thinking too much, “Of course, I know. She was in the war and blah blah blah, being in the war makes you invincible.”

The Deer stopped smiling. He looked at the road, his eyes cold as he said, “On the contrary. War destroys you and returns you to your primitive self. Survival is the only thing that matters. And at times, that means sacrificing people close to you. Luckily you haven’t been through that. But when the only thing that matters is who breathes in the end. Things change. People change.”

The girl looked at the Deer and said, “I have fought for my life.”

“And you won every time. But fighting to live is not the same as fighting not to die. Those are two completely different things,” Slevin pointed out.

The young woman looked at Deer again and tried to think what he meant. She put her eyes back on the road and said, “What is the difference?”

The Deer drew a melancholy smile and said, “When you fight to live, you fight not to lose what you have that makes you live. When you fight not to die. Well, you fight to save the only thing you have left. Because you really have nothing else to lose...”

The girl looked at the Deer, and his eyes were lost in a memory that, paying close attention, could even be heard. Her noisy mind filled the whole car.

The young woman saw the road again and felt how the air became thicker and denser with each second. She felt like even breathing became a task of execution, and she listened as her co-pilot said.

“Imagine that breathing was not involuntary. Imagine feeling it was a prize. Imagine that you forgot how to cry and suffer and all your sorrows simply became a weight on your soul. Now imagine that laughter was just a blurry memory. And breathing in and breathing out was the prize of that moment. Think that a knife would like to take that away from you... that’s fighting not to die.”

The young woman lost sight of the road at Slevin’s hypnotic statement when she heard him asked, “What the hell is that?”

Karen came to reality, and she planted her eyes on the road when she saw a strange cloud of smoke or fog completely covering the building they were heading to.

“But what the fuck...”

Something was happening at the base, and something was happening in the city.

At the reception of the national security organization, two young women were listening to an agent speak.

“We can go for a drink today. Let’s go, this weekend will be long, and we can take advantage of that. I’ll tell my brother, and we’ll have fun...”

The young ones did not seem concerned about the fog that covered the entire place. In the background, six figures approached through the prominent smoke. The first to appear was a young blond with a cap and dark glasses.

Once he was in front of the glass, he took off his cap to show his face. The young man who spoke with the girls at the reception looked at his face and turning to check the billboard of the most wanted of the national organization.

There it was, the same face of the young man who saw him from the other side of the glass.

The man forcefully inhaled a huge breath of air as if he wanted to say something but right next to the most wanted man, a girl placed her hand on the glass.

At that moment, the fog dissipated completely, and the glass of the door shattered for later to shoot out in the direction of the man.

The sound was thunderous as the crystals flew towards the man, stopping any action he could take.

The officer fell to his knees on the ground while a huge amount of blood gushed from his body from all the wounds that the crystal had caused him. The girls at the reception were stunned when several officers came to see what was happening.

All armed and ready to take action, they saw the small group of men at the door and the bloody spectacle starring their partner.

A second was more than enough to understand the tone of the situation, and everyone without any hesitation opened fire on the newcomers. But all their shots hit invisible walls that they could not understand.