Chapter 11
Note: This chapter contains graphic violence. Reader's discretion is advised.
Matt Black Bar, Bunkieki,
Callone VI, Federated Suns,
September 16, 3078
The sting in his chest still burnt like two little furnaces as Shuran sat quietly in the bar, trying not to attract people's attention. The liquor eased his pain a little, but he had two holes the size of his thumb in his chest. Nothing could take away the pain completely.
For some demented luck, Shuran was still alive after getting drilled by two rounds of 50-caliber sniper shots right on his chest. Both rounds missed his vital organs, and the sniper's decision to use full metal jackets instead of hollow points actually gave Shuran a favor. Both bullets exited his body without doing critical damages. Had they been hollow points, Shuran would've been long dead.
But the flesh wounds were the least of his concern. There was an HPG message from the kidnappers that forced him to defy all odds and stalked some Hansen's Roughriders operatives in a bar. With trembling hands Shuran flipped his portable HPG set, and the message from Tzou and Youw popped up on the screen.
Mr. Thomela,
Our clients are growing impatient from the lack of progress on your job. They don't want to give you a deadline, but if you continue to work at this rate, they will surely do it. We warn you to not contest their patience because you will regret that decision. Get the Cleaver battlemech or its blueprint as soon as possible, then report back to us. This is our last warning. The next time we talk to you would be our notification that your wife has been victimize by your own laziness. You don't want it to happen.
Mr. Tzou, Mr. Youw.
Shuran wondered if he was sent to the right planet. He never saw one single Cleaver battlemech since he landed on Callone VI. There were stories about the Cleavers during the civil war, but they were all destroyed. The manufacturer, the Ghalan mafia family, had been destroyed and the lone survivor, Rebecca, was now the Duchess of Callone VI. She was using the Hansen's Roughriders as her army. Had the Cleavers been still around, she would've used them. They were high-quality mechs piloted by an army of cyborgs, so they shouldn't find any difficulties mopping up local oppositions.
So where was this Cleaver? The only person who could answer it was Rebecca Ghalan. It was the reason why Shuran stalked three Roughriders operatives in the last two hours. They were not soldiers – obvious from their outfit and body language – but office workers, TAC officers, or maybe even cooks. The only thing attached them to the mercenary unit was the patches of horned skull on their sleeves.
The three Roughriders kept on drinking and babbling, laughing and screaming at the TV screen which broadcast a massacre at Styk in which the Capellan Confederation was accused to kill unarmed civilians to weaken the Styk guerillas. One of the Roughriders supported the Capellan while the other two clearly condemned Capellan's ignorance of human lives. The debate heated up at times, but everybody cooled off whenever new rounds of drinks came.
Shuran waited patiently until the broadcast ended and the three Roughriders decided to call it a night. He slipped past the bartender to exit from the back door, then zipped through the alley to intercept the Roughriders at the front door. They walked and sang hideously on the street, throwing slurs at some locals, then came to a quiet alley where half the lamps were broken.
It was time for Shuran to make his move.
Quick as a cat Shuran threw himself into the midst of the Roughriders. He grab one, held him by his neck, then slammed his head onto the wall. The drunk and unsuspecting Roughriders swayed like a log, and did nothing when his head exploded at the wall, leaving a long swath of blood. The body sloshed to the ground.
One of the remaining Roughriders drew his gun but Shuran grabbed his arm and pried his shoulder up. A loud crack blended with agonizing scream as the man careened, holding his dislocated shoulder. Shuran grabbed his hair and with one quick flick he twisted the unfortunate man's neck. Another series of cracks reverberated in the dark alley, and the man tumbled right on top of the first one.
Not knowing what to do, the last on tried to run but Shuran kicked his ankle. The man fell and rolled like a ball, and painfully tried to escape when Shuran pinned him to the ground. The man's small frame strained under the weight of the large ex-Clanner, and he gasped for breath..
"Listen to me carefully, because I will say this only once," Shuran hissed as he put the gun on the man's temple. "You will bring me to Rebecca Ghalan tonight. You will introduce me as your relative, then bring me inside the palace to meet her. One wrong move and I swear you will die horribly."
"No, no, no," the man stuttered. "Duchess Rebecca is not here. She is at Eselex. She was kidnapped by the Arctic Wolves mercenary unit."
"What?" Shuran cringed. There was another mercenary unit at Callone VI, and the fact they worked covertly told him that they might be looking for the same thing as him. The Arctic Wolves might be the ones that shot him. "How do you know this? What do they want?"
"The Arctic Wolves kidnapped Duchess Rebecca and tried to blackmail the Hansen's Roughriders. But we traced the signal and it came from Eselex. Major Tenoch will send a strike team to hunt for Duchess Rebecca tomorrow. "
"A strike team? Like the one you sent to Bervalla?"
"No, no, Bervalla was for the Fusiliers," fear and intoxication made the man divulge everything he knew. "This is a fast, highly-trained team. We didn't know that the Arctic Wolves were in Callone VI until yesterday, so Major Tenoch thought they came in small numbers. A small task force should be able to handle them."
"You're lying," Shuran cocked his gun. "You don't send a battlemech strike team to rescue one hostage. You never intend to rescue Rebecca. You're hitting the Arctic Wolves, possibly by destroying Eselex like you destroyed Bervalla."
"Hey, hey, I didn't send them man!" the guy squirmed in terror. "It's all Major Tenoch! Come on, let me go!"
Shuran knew the man told the truth. He could see it from his dilated eyes. He flipped his gun and busted the man's temple with the gun's handle. He looked left and right, then slipped into the darkness. He walked toward the edge of the town where he left his Thor. Rebecca Ghalan was the key to his wife Nisha. He had to do whatever it he could to protect Rebecca. If she died, then everything was for vain.
