Soldier of Time

XLVI: Deer Season (1)

It was a text message that told Nicol that the job was done. The girl knew that with what they had done, she would have the absolute possibility of discovering Hanibal’s lair without the slightest difficulty.

Knowing the possibility that they would be able to catch Hanibal was both making her worried and ecstatic at the same time.

Karen had ordered her to start the hack while she returned. When she arrived, they would have the location of Hanibal’s hideout and could carry out the offensive to end this situation.

Nicol, perfectly complying with the order of her superior, began to make preparations to find the said lair. He entered the program protected by the device installed by Karen, and he could make any necessary change in the system as long as it was not drastic. The search for Hanibal would begin, and without a doubt, they could find him.

As she began searching for it to the office where she was staying, a highly elegant visitor arrived.

Jolanda and the assistant Chancellor, who had learned of the situation, were conducting an inspection to see what had happened to the team tasked with capturing Hanibal.

Lucios looked at the young woman in the office that the receptionist had told him that he had been enabled for the activities of the young Karen, and when he saw her, he asked, “Miss, Who are you? And where is Karen?”

Nicol looked up, and when she saw the assistant Chancellor, she stopped on the spot.

She looked around her, trying to find a way to explain what she was doing, but the Chancellor approached her calmly, placed his hand on her forearm, and said to her, “Do not be scared, my dear girl. I know you are working hard. But I need to know what happened, and I need to know where Karen is.”

The tender and understanding voice of the assistant Chancellor calmed all the young woman’s fears, and she was entering a state of total tranquility and explained the whole situation, from the attack on the previous complex to the mission that she was carrying out at that exact moment.

The Chancellor listened carefully, and with all seriousness, he nodded every time the young woman told him the movements that the group had to do, and when she finished, the man saw her directly in her eyes.

He whispered something and then releasing her, said, “Keep doing what you’re doing, beautiful. And tell Karen to call me as soon as I get here. Jolanda, you will stay in this place to wait for Karen. I have a job for you later.”

Lucios left the office. Many of the men who roamed those facilities greeted him with cordiality and respect, but the man’s face was compressed into a worried grimace. He took his phone and began to dial.

He walked through a large training room without paying much attention and in it was young Troy waiting.

The Assistant Chancellor continued on his way out of the facility and into his car to leave while in that training room. Something would take place.

Troy waited for Johan to appear, and this, forty minutes later, showed up at that place.

“Why did you call me?” Johan asked, while he was watching Troy. With firmness he asked further, “What did you want to talk about?”

Troy looked at him and, smiling, said, “Julia. I want to talk to you about Julia.”

Johan knew what the tone of the conversation would be, and he wouldn’t like it, he thought about getting out of trouble, but if he wanted his life to get to some kind of normality, he had to overcome this. He looked at Troy, the protector, and said firmly.

“I don’t think that’s your business.”

“But it is. She is scared, and she does not make the most logical decisions. So I’ll make this one for her.”

“And who the f**k are you to do that?” Johan asked angrily, while glaring at Troy in front of him.

“I’m who can. The decision is final after this is over. After the psycho is done. You and Julia will also be done.”

Johan felt anger take hold of him, his animal instincts throbbing inside him, and he watched as Troy’s gaze called them to the surface. The presence of that subject was terrifying, but for a wild beast like Johan, they were nothing more than a threat that he had to eliminate.

Based on his instincts and the anger the young man felt, he said, “I don’t give a s**t who you are and what decision you make. After this is over, I will return to Julia. And she, only she, is the one who can prevent that from happening...”

Troy no longer smiled and saw the Young man with determination in front of him. But that mattered little to him. He took off his jacket and tossed it to the ground. Johan, who was dressed in pants and a hooded sweater, flexed his knees in preparation for what seemed inevitable.

Troy advanced towards him very slowly and said, “You and Julia. You’re done. Do you understand?”

Johan began to feel his animal instincts take over, and he said, “Die!”

The young man was about to attack. The smell and the beat of Troy’s heart, although calm, were well registered in his senses.

Troy prepared himself for his movement, and when they both began to move, something strange happened.

Troy began to look at his hands with curiosity while Johan could not perceive his heartbeat or his body odor. In fact, his nose had stopped working.

Both of them were seen and with more calm than Johan intended to say, “I can’t smell...”

Troy kept looking at different places in the room and saw his hands again, he looked at Johan, and they both felt that something was not right.

In another office in that building, Trixie and Jerome were talking quietly with Simon when the young woman, out of nowhere, asked, “And where did that fog come from?”

Simon got up and went to the window. The fog had certainly appeared out of nowhere. He tried to observe with his eyes as far as it could go, but it didn’t work. His power did not activate.

The young man turned to Trixie and said, “Something is wrong….”

Trixie, who was sitting, began to feel absolute fatigue and Jerome next to her took her in her arms just before she fainted.

Suddenly the fog dissipated in an instant and the young people felt a strong shudder that came from the main entrance of that building.

Half an hour earlier, a block from the building where the youngsters were, a van stopped. A young man with dark glasses and a cap that tried to hide his blond hair got out of it.

Next to him was a fellow dressed in a suit with aviator glasses and well-groomed black hair and a fairly small red-haired girl dressed in jeans shorts and a long white blouse. Her hair was tied in two tails that fell to her shoulders, and a lollipop rested in her mouth.

The man in a suit looked at a cell phone while he asked expressionlessly, “Are you sure about this, Hanibal?”

The blond young man looked at the young woman next to her and placing a hand on her head and stroking her like a dog, he replied, “Sure, Rudy is here. It is a good plan.”

The man in the suit left the phone in his pants, he took off his jacket and threw it into the Van then he looked at Hanibal again and taking off his glasses he said.

“I think you underestimate him.”

“I think you overestimate him, friend.”

“He has fooled you several times, and he has eliminated people much more dangerous than you.”

Hanibal smiling, looked at his friend through his glasses, and with some irritation in his voice, he said, “There is no one more dangerous than me, buddy.”

“There are hundreds of people more dangerous than you...”

Smiling, Hanibal turned to the Van and opened the sliding door, and there were four more people inside. Two of them were the ones who had attacked the compound where Karen was, defeating an infinity of soldiers, destroying the place, and putting Karen in retreat.

Everyone looked at Hanibal, and he said, “Guys, do you want to do this, or are you scared?”

All the passengers smiled, and from the driver’s door, a young woman got out.

She was looking at Hanibal, as she said, “I won’t go in. I’ll drive to go. But I won’t go in there.”