Starring this chapter:
Soldier: Don Gregory
Engineer: Vincent McDonald
Scout: Billy StanleyHeavy: Alexei NikolaevSniper: Stevo Brown
Boston Docks, 11.45 A.M.
"The car is here!" barked one of the family's men, stepping out of his car and pointing to an orange SUV sitting motionless in the street, its doors open. Another two men stepped out from the black car and ran towards the cement dock where the big car was parked.
"Empty. Fuck, we can't have lost them!" grunted one of the men, glancing inside the SUV, before gazing around the dock: a few feet away, loading some big crates onto a merchant ship, there were a group of men that were completely ignoring the three armed people searching around the SUV.
"Hey you! Have you seen the driver of this thing?" asked one of the men, trying to catch the dockworker's attention. One of them turned his head, a bored expression on his face.
"The three guys with the girl? They ran towards those warehouses." He stated, pointing to a set of buildings a few feet away. "Probably don't know that their car will be towed away."
The family's men didn't answer, loading their guns and running towards the building. The man at the dock scratched his beard, before calling to the men on the ship, who began to raise up the last crate.
"Ok boys, we are ready, lets get out of here!" cried out the captain's voice, as the ship began to move away from the dock. The captain, a tall, bearded man, walked out of the cabin and onto the deck, while other beefy men began to put the crates in the hold. He walked slowly towards the last big crate that had been loaded on, opening it. "All ok in there?" he asked, smirking.
Don muttered something, his face pressed against the wooden surface of the crate. Vincent gavee a thumb up, as Billy and his girlfriend smiled at the captain.
-oOo-
"You were all lucky the Undertaker told us to ready for any circumstance. Lucky that we had the the time to store you in that crate." Mumbled the captain, drinking a little glass of wine, while his four guests were sitting around a simple table in his cabin.
"So, you work for that creepy guy on the phone, huh?" inquired Don, looking suspiciously at the old man in front of him. The engineer shook his head, sighing at his companion's behavior.
"You could say that. And I was instructed to bring all of you to the main ship. Until then, you are under my supervision." Grunted the captain.
"Man, this guy is organized. Any idea of why he's working so hard to keep us alive?" asked the former Scout, with his feet up on the table. The old man grumbled something about manners, before answering.
"Can't say I know, boy. The Undertaker has a lot of plans."
"And we are going straight to him, unarmed and without any kind of tactical advantage? I don't like it." Grumbled Don, glaring at the old man.
"Actually, he left you some pretty nice weaponry in your rooms, I think you can find them quite nice and…" began the old man, but Don had already vanished, running towards his room laughing like a child that had discovered it was Christmas.
"So… how is this guy?" asked the former Scout, rocking slightly in his chair. The old man sighed and sat on another chair, filling his glass again.
"Cold. And calculating. That what I always noticed. And not an honest guy, I can say. He saved my shipping agency from bankruptcy, but now he has us transport some package of… I don't know of what… but some suspicious package everytime we travel."
"Oh… and where are we going now?" asked Vincent, while pushing off Billy's feet off of the table. The captain grinned.
"Katenhult, in Sweden. Little port town, it's not even indicated on all the maps. But there is our dock. And also, the Undertaker's lair." Grinned the old man. "But we have a little schedule before that. My orders are to be at a certain set of coordinates tomorrow afternoon, and pick up the last four members of your group."
"Four? Ya're mistaken, there are six members left in our group" stated the texan engineer with confusion. Then, the door opened and Don entered the cabin, while laughing at something that the australian guy at his side had just said as an enormous Russian squeezed his way through the doorframe.
"Nope, four, I'm sure."
"Heavy! Sniper! Holy heavens!" exclaimed Vincent, jumping to his feet and running to them, shaking the Sniper's hand.
"Howdy there mate, nice to see ya'll again. I was just getting out of my cabin, and ran into the Soldier here."
"Only Australians sleep untill noon." Stated Don, grinning. "At least, Heavy was helping the workers." The giant just smiled lightly, as Billy joined the Engineer in his welcoming, patting the giant's back. "I didn't even had the time to check what this Undertaker guy left me."
"So captain, when shall we get the others?" asked Alexei, moving his eyes over the old man.
"Tomorrow. Them, including the family of one of them... apparently the Undertaker wants to keep your family members alive too."
"That's kinda strange." Stated bluntly Don, scratching his head.
"I assume he's doing that to keep your morale high. Like he accepted protecting also Scout's girl and the Heavy's li'l sis." Commented the captain. "Now, get out of here and relax. For a little while, you are not going to have to fear bullets and stuff."
-oOo-"Now, this is a good piece of weapon." Grinned Don, while looking at the rocket launcher placed on his bed, in his little cabin: a black, rectangular rocket launcher with rounded edges, sporting two dark grey fastening bands near the front end and case coverings hanging open at both ends of the weapon, the rear case covering swinging idly.
Smiling wildly, former soldier raised it and measured its weight, taking some steps around the room. It was extremely heavy, but he could walk easily with it. He placed it carefully on the bed again, reading the piece of paper near to it: 'If you're lucky enough to sport the upper body strength to actually carry this monster, you can guarantee, after firing this half-a-ton hellraiser, it will be the only thing left that's not a smouldering pile of ash.'
"A weapon for a true american!" he stated happily to no one in particular. He then turned and left the cabin, joining the rest of the group. "One of the last creations of the Mann's industries, I can tell guys!" he boasted. "What do you got?"
"A nice weapon." Stated simply the engineer, raising a large pump-action coach gun-style shotgun with a wooden stock and ornate engravings on the metal receiver, to which a violet cylindrical capacitor with an antenna was attached. "I wonder why they are giving us weapons. I mean, didn't he want to simply protect us?"
"Well, weapons for self defence, it's obvious!" roared Don, while walking on the deck with the rest of the old group. Well, almost all the rest. Billy had vanished with his girl somewhere. But no one of the others wanted to try to find him.
"Well, I don't need a new weapon mate, still with the good ol' Machina. After last time, I gathered some money and bought one of my own. That thing let me save a lot of money on bullets."
"So ya're still in the rangering buisness?" asked Vincent, while leaning over a crate.
"Ya can say that, even if lately it's more hunting down the poacher instead of keeping the number of animals under control." Grunted Stevo, adjusting his glasses. "Then that guy called me and told me to retrieve the Heavy from a russian circus. Can't say that was easy."
"A circus? Seriously?"
"I spend all money on little sister's oeration. We have to continue to work in circus after that." said calmly Alexei. He didn't mnd what the others might think about his job when he wasn't in his role of heavy weapon guy. It was a family tradition, after all.
"And you brought your little sister into this? Man, you commies are quie strange." Grunted Don.
"Delicate as a rhino in the back as usual, I see. The Family would have tried to kill her too." Stated the Sniper, huffing. "In this case, having a family could be a weight."
"Olga is clever girl. She knows how to stay out of trouble." Stated simply the russian giant. "So, if there is going to happen something bad, she'll be ok." Don opened his mouth just to retort something, but the Engineer cut him off, trying to avoid any argument on having kids around weapons.
"So, what did you get, Heavy?"he asked, while shooting a warning look at the Soldier. Alexei shrugged, taking out from his pocket a ripped paper, passing it to the texan: written in cubical letters, he saw a publicity blurb. Evidently, for the Undertaker, they were better that any other explanations. 'Look at all those people scrambling around with their tiny, ugly guns. But this- this gun is b-e-a-utiful. So pick this beast up and blast away those distrustful little buggers all the way to Hell. Is it worth it? Of course it is.'
"A nice piece of minigun! He must really care for our skin, to spend so much in fine weaponry just for us!" stated the Soldier, who was reading the advertisement from behind the Engineer's shoulder.
"We'll see what's the deal when we'll meet him. No sense in slamming our heads on that now." Stated Stevo, while looking at the sea. "I just hope Scout's ok. After all the dilly dally, he seemed to be a little off. Scared for the girl, I'm assuming."
"Heck yeah. But dragging around drug-addicted girls have his downsides." Snickered the Soldier. "I want to see how long he'll bear her."
-oOo-
"You okay 'Ann?" asked Billy, concerned, watching as the girl opened her eyes, staring at him from the bed where she was laying. Her eyes moved briefly to a corner of the little cabin, where a wooden club covered with spikes and reinforced with metal bands was resting. She moved again her eyes to Billy, taking a deep breath.
"What's happened?"
"You passed out when we entered here." Said Billy, looking worriedly at the girl. She tried to sit up on the bed, but as soon as she tried, an intense nausea hit her, forcing her to lay still again.
"Where are we?"
"On the ship that saved our arses."
"Oh… so it was all real huh? thought I was tripping out really badly." Grunted the girl. "God, it hurts… do you have some stuff with you?" she asked, rolling a little in the bed.
"No honey, didn't have the time to get your stuff." Answered the young man, stroking the sweaty hair of the girl. "You have to resist a little."
"Fuck." Grunted her. "This is going to hurt."
"Stay calm, I can see if the stuff this ship is transporting has anything that could be good for you." Reassured the Scout, before smiling at her and sliding out of the cabin.
"You aren't going to find anything down there, kid." Stated calmly the captain, lighting up a pipe, from where he rested on the wall outside the Scout's room, startling him.
"Woah! What are you doing here old man?!"
"Just checking if everything was ok, that's all." The old man stated simply, puffing out a cloud of smoke. "And anyway, whatever kind of stuff your girl needs, it's not here anymore. We have to give the package to some people. I'm afraid you can't search them."
"Well fuck. She's going to be in a lot of pain. She needs… well, actually, whatever kind of… well…. Drug…." Grumbled the scout. The old man puffed another cloud of smoke.
"Young man, who am I to judge? Unfortunately, there is anything like that here. Some painkillers might do the trick anyway, yes?" he asked calmly, being praised by the happy expression on Billy's face. "They are in the infirmary. Go get them, tiger." He added. The young man nodded, before darting away. The captain let out a rough laugh. Those young people. He inhaled again from his pipe and walked again towards the dock, looking over the other group of men, who were laughing and talking about something, while a little girl was spying on them without anyone noticing. Maybe this assignment wasn't going to be so bad.
Suddenly, his cellphone rang. He hurriedly took it out, and tried to accept the call, trying to remember the right button to click. Those modern newfangled gizmos!
"Hello there?"
"Wow, you actually managed to answer the phone. I'm impressed." Answered a cold voice.
"Hey boss. Nice for you to call."
"The load is safe?"
"Safe and sound." Stated the captain, while looking again at the group of men. "Oh, the Scout's companion, got some sort of addiction."
"I was aware of that. Not a problem for me to handle. Now listen, we have a little problem. The main ship had an…. incident…and now, you are going to receive the rest of them and carry all of them into town. No delay. You are also going to welcome my dear sister. Am I clear Oliver? You don't have to worry, nothing dangerous is going to happen to your ship."
"What kind of incident?
"Blown up. I'm starting to assume that there could be a leak of information from my base."
"A spy?"
"A spy. But I'll handle that. Just bring me that group. Or you can say goodbye to your ship, crew, and calm old age. Am I clear?"
"As crystal, sir."
Oo-oONext cap will be up in a few days. Remember to drop a review.