Soldier of Time

LIX: Three hours to live (2)

“I don’t know what you did with Rudy, but I’m not surprised that she helped you because since I got here, I had a kind of crush on you, but Sharon, that took me by surprise. What did you do to get her to help you?”

“I just told her that your boss is a lunatic who is about to provoke a war...”

“Do you think that alone was enough?”

“It clearly worked. But what do you think?”

“I think that things are as they are, they hired me for this job, and I will carry it out. If that unleashes a war, then so be it. I know I will not die easily, and neither does the boss, although you know that better than anyone. And although we are in different teams, I must say that I think you are an incredible and very strong man...”

“Well, you defeated me without problems.”

“Circumstances. You beat people I considered too strong, so I’m not such an i***t to brag that I’m stronger than the Deer or Hanibal. No, I don’t suffer from that. I understand how things happen, and that makes me survive. Steven is a man like me. I’m here for him, and I make decisions that I don’t understand for him.”

“Are you another one of those people who does not want war but believes it?” Asked the Deer seeing the young woman directly in her eyes, “You know that war will affect you too?”

“Nobody here does what they want, Deer. Therefore, such beautiful speeches about war will accomplish nothing. The only one of us who actually had a will of her own was Rudy. All the rest of us are obliged to be here.”

“Forced by whom?”

“As if I were going to tell you,” said the young woman smiling and taking a syringe filled with a strange liquid. “You see, that person is smarter than you and everyone else. No one escapes from his treatment. But anyway, the boss said that you must die, and that will happen.”

“You came to kill me...”

“Yes. But not as you think, tomorrow we will trade you for Steven, and we need you alive, or they will kill him, so the boss came up with this plan.”

“I see,” Slevin said while smiling bitterly. He then added, “You will poison me...”

The young woman looked at the smile of the Deer, and a smile was drawn on her own face.

She looked at him, and with sincerity, she said, “You have a beautiful smile….”

To which the Deer replied, “That won’t save me from you killing me, right?”

“Exactly if you are a smart man,” the young woman said with a more brotherly tone than she intended.

She then added, “This poison usually takes between 24 and 18 hours to take effect.” As the young woman said that, she was also checking if everything was in order before she approached to inject the defenseless Deer.

“So if I inject you now, you will be alive for the exchange, and you will die when we have Steven,” she said casually.

“I see, but you shouldn’t tell me that you’re injecting me with poison cause when I’m free, the first thing I’ll do is to look for the antidote.”

“Assuming you can. Which I very much doubt is the case. You would not have enough time, you do not know what poison is, and you do not know how long it will take to take effect. After the change, you could have two hours or ten minutes depending on your strength.”

“I see,” the Deer said while looking at the syringe in the girl’s hand. “This is very well planned.”

“That’s right. The boss says that if you manage to get rid of this with another of your miracles, then you will deserve to live. He is not a person who likes to take away your chance to win.”

The Deer saw the strange mirror on the wall and assumed that Hanibal would be on the other side.

“And why doesn’t your boss give me the injection himself?”

“Because he doesn’t kill like that. This does not satisfy him, Deer. You should know better.”

At that moment, the girl injected the contents of the syringe into the body of the Deer. He felt the heat of the substance entering his bloodstream and asked, “Will it hurt?”

The young woman got up and put the syringe in the briefcase that she had brought, the Deer looked at her, and at that moment, Carolina turned around, placed her hand on the Deer’s cheek before leaving, and said, “Yes, it will hurt a little...”

And with those words, she left the room.

The night passed with speed, and Steven was prepared for the exchange while Troy readied everything he talked with him and told him.

“The end is coming, brother.”

“That’s right,” The doctor answered.

He had been sedated all night on Karen’s orders, and during that time, the girl had introduced a tracking instrument to the doc.

The Chic was tiny, so much so that the introduction of it into the doctor’s body had not caused any injury, only a small vaccine in the upper part of his arm that, after the unconscious night, the doctor was not able to feel.

They knew that if Steven felt the change in his body, the plan to place the tracker on him would not work, everything seemed to be in position, and Troy was now preparing the doctor for the exchange that was going to take place.

Things were ready, and all the young people got on the transport to the agreed place. It was two in the afternoon.

It was only a few days until the month that Jericho had given was fulfilled. Everyone was on the clock, and the hostage exchange was about to take place.

Karen had prepared a plan. She had placed trackers on all of Steven’s clothes, hoping that they would work as a decoy for the one that the man had on his arm.

Her plan was weak, and she knew it, but time was running out, and if she did not do something, everything would be lost, and the death of his men would be completely in vain.

She was counting on this all going perfectly, and in front of her, a black van pulled up. The side door of this opened, and the face of the Deer appeared.

Hanibal got out of the car and, raising his hand, signaled for the members of the other car to get out. Troy got out with Steven supported, and Karen, with a pistol in hand, appeared.

The negotiation for the exchange had been two people, for each prisoner without a witness or reinforcements, neither of them had respected the deal, but one in front of the other it seemed that way.

Troy and Karen were holding Steven, who saw his friend and smiled when he saw Hannibal hit the truck with an open hand, and Jack and Carolina appeared with the Deer in hand.

In the chosen square, it was a huge place and Circular monument to the end of the war with a square in the shape of a clock and a huge obelisk in the center.

The closest buildings were three blocks away. It was a lonely place par excellence because of how far from the city it was.

At the top of the obelisk, Simon was preparing his rifle with a Trixie that covered him in that place. The man had Hanibal in his sights, and nothing prevented him from taking a shot, but something told him that it would not work.

Hanibal was not stupid. He asked, “How are you, buddy?”

“Good, catching up with a friend,” Steven said as he smiled.

The Deer raised his face and asked, “Could we end this...?”

Hanibal smiling, looked at Karen, and with a haughty attitude, he said, “Good girl. Here we are. Give me my doctor, and I will give you your Deer.”

The girl with anger in her eyes nodded, and Troy released Steven while Jack let the Deer go. They both walked naturally, and when they were side by side, the doctor looked at the Deer and said, “Three hours. Around.”

The confused Deer looked at the doctor, and he said, “A chance to fight.”

To which the smiling Deer replied, “This time, I will fight for something much more important.”

And they kept moving forward.