There was a distinct taste of nerves in the air the afternoon set for the evacuation. Some of the crew from the assisting ship had come early to help with the mass departure. Among the small group was the captain, a face Wolf recognized.
"Cresenda," he said in surprise. She smiled in response. The two brothers flanked her just like last time, the same hard look on their faces.
"Hello again," she said in a neighbourly voice, "nice to meet under better circumstances, slight as the difference might be. Where's that little girl, hm?"
"She's… gone," Wolf replied, trying to keep his voice steady.
"Gone? Where in devil to?"
"She's been taken by Red Generation," Nicola snarled angrily. Wolf tried to ignore the burning feeling of Nikki's glare boring into the back of his head. She may be going along with Wolf's plan, but that didn't mean that she didn't hate him for getting Sloan into Red Gen's hands in the first place.
The news of Sloan's kidnapping somehow put a mischievous fire in Cresenda's eyes.
"Ah, a damsel in distress. I assume that a daring rescue will be part and parcel to this extraction?"
"No rescue," Xannon said flatly. Cresenda stared silently at her. The fire left her eyes in favour of surprise. She looked at Wolf for some kind of explanation. He couldn't meet her gaze. For the first time since he had met her she seemed off balance.
"I see," she murmured. Xannon nodded, businesslike.
"Yes, now, for fear of sounding cold, may we move on to the pressing task of saving these children's lives?" Another look was shot Wolf's direction, and this one he was more than happy to return. Cresenda and Xannon walked away together, the first carrying a worried look. Nikki went to follow, stopping just long enough to whisper in Wolf's ear,
"The message you wrote has been sent, Sabre will contact with his response." Wolf didn't so much as nod to prove that he heard, he wanted nothing that might make Xannon grow suspicious. He knew that she already suspected him, since he would be far too stubborn to just give up. Feigning submission was difficult, but he obediently followed the others. All he could do was wait and hope King would fall for his plan.
"I was thinking that we could all take two or three children, to make it look natural," he heard Xannon saying.
"Dear, this is Berman, it won't look natural unless you take five at a time."
"I'm afraid of taking so many groups of kids at once. You don't think the guards will notice?"
"Hmm, stagger them by about 20 minutes, families come and go through there all the time."
"Okay, well I want to get started right away. All the locals want to help, and they've dressed the children in a change of clothes. Wolf and Nicola, I want you to go ahead, make sure our way is clear. While we're loading the kids, you need to make sure that no one is getting suspicious."
"How are we planning to continually feed kids into one or two ships without anyone noticing?" Wolf asked sceptically.
"We're hoping that if we approach from different angles, we can use the huge crowds to our advantage."
"I hope you've got some hot babes to distract the soldiers while we do this," one of the brothers muttered. A wave of mumbled laughter washed through the room, even managing to provoke a smile from Xannon.
"I guess we can manage that," Cresenda kidded. A few names were shouted out in suggestion, and more laugher filled the room, lightening the dark mood. Wolf enjoyed it, but there was still that gnawing wish that Sloan could have been there as well. He glanced toward Nikki. Soon, Sloan would be enjoying these things again. Or else.
XxX
It took only a few hours to get things organized, but precious light had been lost. Everyone was itching to get going, including the children. They could tell that something big was happening. They all shifted uneasily, not sure whether to be exited or afraid. Wolf's heart grew heavy as he surveyed the group. It was noticeably smaller than when he had first arrived on Berman. He only hoped that this extraction hadn't come too late for the survivors. Nikki's voice slipped into his ear.
"Are we going, or are you going to stand gawking until we miss our chance?" Wolf didn't bother to look in her direction, dirty looks would just make things worse.
"I thought we were supposed to wait for Zindi's signal. Or are you not talking about the kids?" he asked her. She spared the huddle of children barely a glance, and Wolf saw a distinct lack of compassion in her eyes. It made him bristle. "I'm not walking off. I can help Xannon, and I can help Sloan at the same time, so that's what I'm, what we're, going to do."
Nicola clouded over and turned away, walking across the street and disappearing into the long shadows that had been created by the quickly setting sun. Wolf paid her no mind, he knew she wouldn't leave without him. He shifted impatiently and searched the crowd for Xannon. He wanted the sign so that they would get going. His plan took a certain degree of timing for it to work. The message that he had sent King in Xannon's name said that she needed another Spec Ops to replace the one she had lost, and that she was in the Berman area. If he wanted to talk about a sale, he was to meet her at the sea docks at dusk. Of course, there would be no Xannon to meet. After that, he really had no idea what he was going to do. He only hoped that he could use King's incredible love for messing with people's minds against him.
A waving hand drew his attention. Xannon was giving the signal to move out. He turned on his heel and walked up the dirt road. He wasn't expecting any trouble until they got closer to the docks, but he kept his mind open. Ever since he first became a Hunter's prey, he had always been watching, never completely sure they had given up the hunt.
His thought about the Hunters brought back snapshots of his dream, Sloan's eyes filled his mind. He was sure that it hadn't been a dream, but a vision. The abilities he had afforded him occasional glimpses into the future, abstract as they tended to be. He shivered. Visions he saw had a tendency of coming true. Did that mean that Sloan's destiny was set in stone, or did he still have a chance to change it? She hadn't actually killed him in his dream, was that a sign that he still had a chance? He snapped his fingers. He watched a small flame burn on his fingertips. It reminded him of what Sloan used to be to him, what she had become.
A hand fell heavily on his shoulder. Her reached for his weapon, but stopped when cold steel touched his throat.
"I thought you were supposed to be the eyes of the group, Wolf," Nikki snarled in his ear. Wolf's hand curled into a fist. How badly he wanted to take his anger out on her, but she was just too strong. She looked slight and fragile, but that was one of the things that made Spec Ops so dangerous. One of the many things. He pulled away from her, not afraid of the blade at his throat.
"Why don't you go the way you were told to, instead of shadowing me? For someone who hates me for losing her sister, you seem to spend a lot of time watching me."
"Only for the right moment," Nikki snarled back. "Just remember, if I didn't need you to save Sloan, you would have been dead as soon as I heard you'd driven her off."
Wolf only glared in return. He knew that was no lie. He simply jerked his head to the right, roughly the direction she was supposed to be heading in, and walked past her. he didn't give her another chance to sneak up on him, and in fact was super sensitive to every noise. Every few minutes he would glance down at his comm., hoping that the 'it's a go' message from Sabre had finally come. Every time he was disappointed.
Just as he had thought, the only people they came across were locals, although Wolf was sure that he had seen Hunter's eyes peering at him from the shadows. He paused for a moment about 300 feet from the space docks. There were several patrols loitering around the only entrance. They didn't look like they were on duty, but there was enough eyes that he was sure someone would notice something strange. The only way around them was through the local's market below the docks, and that was a gamble too, because the three exits from the market to the docks were always havens for guards looking to make trouble. He glanced to his right. Not far off, Nicola had paused as well. She had seen the same problem. Wolf waved for the group to stop. The signal radiated through the widely dispersed group and brought them all to a halt. He walked back to Xannon and Cresenda.
"What's the problem?" Xannon asked, exasperated.
"Way too many guards."
"We already planned for this problem," Xannon told him in a voice one would use on a toddler that had just said something incredibly stupid. Wolf bristled in spite of himself. This was the part of her personality that had he had forgotten. Any amount of stress, and she had the capacity to be incredibly condescending and nasty.
"One of them is going to notice an incredible influx of mixed breed families with kids that don't even look like their parents," Wolf told her as calmly as he could manage.
"Parents die every day, kids get adopted by other families."
"You really think that they'll accept that for everyone?"
"They're going to have to, I'm afraid."
"Unless you have another idea," Cresenda added. Wolf said nothing. He did have another idea, but it wasn't one that he wanted to try. He had recognized some of the older soldiers. Once upon a time, he had been friends with them, before the army had gone from protecting the people to abusing them. If he had to, he could talk to them and distract them. He stared at them silently for a few seconds, then he was distracted by one of the kids. The little boy was shuffling around, fear written all over his face, clinging to the hand of an adult. He was afraid that they would be caught on the way to the ship, that he would have to go back to Red Generation and lose the little taste of freedom he had been given. Wolf tensed, fear bubbling in his throat. He told the two women of his plan without looking at them, without drawing breath or pausing. They stared at him for a few seconds, not really sure what he had said. A smile spread slowly across Xannon's face.
"Wolf that's brilliant!"
I was afraid you'd think that. He turned without allowing her to say anymore, and returned to his place where he had originally spotted the guards. He looked down at his comm. again. Still no message. Maybe it wasn't coming. He looked for the face he had first recognized, a grizzly fennec named Graven. A slight smile crossed his face when he remembered the time he had spent with the man, but it quickly disappeared. That was ages ago, he was something different now, something dangerous. Wolf wondered if they knew to be looking for him. His sighed and ran his fingers though his headfur. One way or another, he was about find out.
There was some yelling as he walked towards them, the younger ones pointed their guns at him. Wolf didn't let his nervousness show. He was dressed like a mercenary, and this was business, emotions would only get in the way. He put his hands up and tried to look as nonthreatening as possible. Then he heard the voice he'd been waiting for.
"Oban?" Graven called. Wolf turned in his direction and looked pleasantly surprised.
"Graven? My god, I haven't seen you in ages!"
Graven walked over, pushing the others out of the way. He seemed just as happy to see Wolf as Wolf pretended to be for him.
"Ages, that's for sure, not since we were kids. How the hell have you been?"
"Ah, what can I say…" Wolf went on with his banter, not daring to glance at the groups of adults and children that went past at irregular intervals. Graven and the others that remembered Wolf were paying too much attention to their old friend to notice anything, and the younger ones couldn't stop the people for long without the authority of the senior officers Wolf had tied up. They talked about family, careers, what their lives had brought them. Wolf pretended to be envious when Graven told him his wife had just given birth to their third child. He got into the conversation, which was filled with lies from his end, and forgot all about the time.
He nearly gagged when he finally glance to his left and saw how low the sun had gotten. It was nearly hidden by the boxy horizon line, and the sky was a fabulous array of gold and purple. Graven followed his eyes to the skyline, and laughed a little.
"Beautiful isn't it? Berman's got some of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen. Yep, that's the only way I can get though being stationed in this hellhole, look on the bright side. You know, I've only got a month left before I get to go home for a year and a half. God, I miss my family."
"That's great, sounds like you've been out here too long," Wolf sympathized. His comm. buzzed, and he looked down, expecting a note that said they had finished. His heart leapt when he saw the note was from Sabre. He opened it. Short and sweet to not draw much attention.
He's there.
He glanced over Graven's shoulder. He could see a few groups that were still coming. If he left now, the guards would lose their main distraction. The child soldiers might get caught. That would ruin everything that Xannon had tried to create. He glanced back at the receding sun. King was already at the docks. He was waiting for him. This would be the only chance he would ever have to save Sloan from a fate worse than death.
"Obie, are you okay?" Graven asked. "You look like something's wrong."
"What? No, it's just… I have to go."
