Chapter 37: Orders

Pierre babbled in French – entirely incomprehensible to the Sorrow, but at least the sound told him that Pierre was about twenty feet away.

Could you fight him? Sorrow asked the dead Frenchman.

"Heh. Pierre's nothing. I could do it even with your scrawny body," the ghost said.

Sorrow dropped another crate onto the seat, and Pierre was quiet.

That is exactly what you have to do, Sorrow said. Now!

Cold rushed through Sorrow's body as the ghost took control of his limbs. His body turned, and his hand snatched the rag from Pierre's fingers.

"You're pretty good for a girl," Clement said, rubbing his arm where her fingers had left red lines.

"But Parasite's a fast little fucker," she sighed. "You won't tell me how to get out, will you?"

"There is no way out. It was only supposed to be you in here, but fate had other plans."

"You mean I wasn't as weak as you expected?" Joy laughed.

"Yes."

"But still a fool." Captured. There was a suicide pill in her pocket and a microbomb in her chest.

"Clement," she asked, "are there actually explosives down here?"

Clement frowned. "Sadly… no. The boxes under the bed are tins of food for you to eat while Parasite takes over your role in this mission. Guess we'll be spreading the food a little farther."

"The Cobras are under orders to blow themselves up if captured. Parasite won't even get them out of the house without me." She crouched in front of the door. "There is a deadbolt on the outside, isn't there?"

"Yes. Mademoiselle, there is a vast difference between orders and actions." His voice came nearer as he spoke. "Please excuse our detaining you here…"

"Mmm…," Joy said, examining the doorknob.

"Parasite is under orders to protect you, to protect your child," Clement said.

His breath was warm on her ear, and she sensed his hand in the air above her shoulder. Joy punched him in the diaphragm with her elbow forcefully enough to knock him back two feet. Without wasting time to stand, she turned on her heels and tripped him as he stumbled. She pressed the barrel of her .45 into the soft flesh under his chin.

"You won't touch me," she said, pushing the barrel until he gagged. "Whose orders?"

"What?" Clement choked.

"Parasite. Under whose orders is he acting?"

Parasite made no sound as he swept into the dining room. He waved his hand from the doorway, and the Cobras heard a chorus of weapons being drawn and cocked.

"Where is the Joy?" Fear said in English. He held his crossbow against Le Feu's back.

"Fear, put that down!" Parasite shouted. He had the accent of a Frenchman who had learned English from a Brit. "My men will kill you and your comrades."

"And all of us will blow up, which is what we'd do even if you don't shoot us," Pain said, reaching slowly for his pocket.

"Don't move," the broad-shouldered man with his rifle on Pain said.

"I'd like to see you try to stop him," Fear hissed.

The broad-shouldered man looked to Parasite for a translation.

Parasite sighed, "Watch him carefully, Tonnes."

An engine rumbled and then stopped outside.

"That will be Pierre," Parasite said, and he disappeared into the hallway.

"Where the hell is Joy?" Fury spat at Dandelion, who held a shotgun he was certain she had never fired.

"La Joie is safe," Dandelion answered with a deep blush. "Parasite is keeping her safe. You will be fine too if you listen to him."

Then the Cobras heard a commanding voice they had never heard before. Parasite stood in the doorway again, stiff and tight-lipped, with his hands on his head. Behind him loomed the Sorrow with a gun to Parasite's head and a bold, vengeful face.

"Tell them what's in the bundles," Sorrow demanded in perfect French.

"S – supplies. Equipment," the trembling Parasite said.

"Tell them, La Glace!" Sorrow's voice bellowed.

"You fucking…," Parasite cried, reaching for Sorrow's gun faster than they had ever seen the Joy move.

Sorrow raised it out of his reach and hooked the man in the stomach with his knee. Parasite flopped like a rag doll against the table and crumpled to the floor. From somewhere inside his jacket, he drew a knife and tried to stab it into Pain's leg. Pain stomped on his hand as Tonnes swung the butt of his rifle into Pain's shoulder. Fear felt Dandelion's tiny hands on his throat and fired at Le Feu. Fury shoved her, and the bolt landed in her shoulder rather than her chest as she screamed.

"What the hell, Fear?" Fury shouted.

The End opened his eyes and turned his rifle on Angelus, the quietest man of Parasite's unit. Wordlessly, Angelus threw his hands into the air. Sorrow crossed the room in four monstrous steps and lifted Parasite by his crushed hand. Wrenching away from the Sorrow, Parasite reached for his gun.

"Stop!" Le Feu yelled above the furor.

Fear struggled against Dandelion's wiry fingers for another two seconds before Parasite shouted in urgent French. Le Feu stood in the middle of the brawl with a clay stick of dynamite. A fuse burned ominously under it.

"Parasite," she said, "put the gun on the floor and surrender. There is no way we can defeat the Cobras."

Parasite answered with a derisive grunt and flipped his hand upward to aim at Sorrow. Pain's hand came down on his wrist, and after a yelp from Parasite, the gun clattered across the floor.

"Angelus!" he shouted at the quiet man. "Your intelligence on the Sorrow was wrong. He was supposed to be physically weak and opposed to violence."

Sorrow laughed, his deep voice booming. "Le Feu, put that out. I'm not the Sorrow, La Glace. You there, tall fellow. Tie him up."

Parasite tried to dive for his gun, but Pain knocked him unconscious with a blow to the back of his head.

"Don't!" Dandelion screamed.

Fear clamped an arm around her neck before she could move for her shotgun. The floor shook as Tonnes fell with a tranquilizer dart in his neck.

"Thanks," Pain said when he saw a knife tumble out of Tonnes's hand.

"Not at all," the End said with a smile.

Le Feu gave Fury the extinguished stick of dynamite and dropped to her knees with her hands over her head.

"And all of the rest of them..," Sorrow said. He swayed precariously and steadied himself on the table. "The… rest…" Sorrow's eyelids closed halfway.

"Shit, Sorrow," Fury said, securing Le Feu's bonds and throwing his hands out to catch Sorrow. "After losing all that goddamned blood. You shouldn't have done that. You shouldn't - ."

Sorrow's eyes were suddenly wide and alert. "Joy. Where is she?"

"Went into that room with the gray-haired guy. You need to sit down for a damn minute."

"Pierre is tied up in the car. Bring him in," Sorrow said as he took a key from Parasite's pocket and crossed the hall.

"Shut up, Clement. Someone's coming," said Joy.

Soft footsteps halted in front of the door, and keys rattled. The first key clinked against the lock, then a second and third key. It wasn't Parasite.

"Sorrow?" Joy asked.

"Yes! I am…" A fourth key clicked in the lock, and he slid the deadbolt open.

"I must - !" he cried, and then he saw Clement. "You must both come quickly."

In the dark hallway, lit only by the flicker of the kerosene lamp in the bedroom, Joy saw a thin, glimmering line like a wire running along the corner where the wall and ceiling met. It disappeared into the darkness as they moved away from the light.

Fear was tying the last knot on a struggling Dandelion when Joy, Sorrow, and Clement stopped in the doorway. Dandelion looked up at Clement with tears on her cheeks.

"You were right, Papa!" she cried. "We were caught! They knew they knew they knew…"

"Quiet, my sweet," Fear hissed. His tongue stroked her cheek, and she screamed.

Clement stared at the girl for a moment then turned away with a deep grunt. He pushed himself out of the doorway and darted to the front door. Joy heard three silenced shots and saw him buckle against the door, his hand slipping off of the knob, before she noticed Sorrow standing grim-faced beside her with his Colt.

"Oh, fuck. Sorrow…," Fury whispered as he crept toward the dying man's body.

Sorrow closed his eyes, and Joy wondered what he was telling the spirit of the man he had just killed.

"Papa! Papa, no!" Dandelion was screaming, flailing on the dining room floor.

"Quiet her, Fear," Joy said. "Sorrow, what happened?"

"Open that bundle, Pain," said the Sorrow.

"Where…?" Pierre muttered groggily. He was propped awkwardly against one of the bundles and realized this with a cry that ended in a nauseated moan.

Pain shoved him off of the bundle and drew his knife to cut the twine.

"Don't open that!" Pierre cried.

Pain's knife sliced through the twine that held the fabric together, and the bundle rolled open. Batting made from scrapped clothing scattered across the floor like confetti, and in the center of the cloth, a man's body was bound into a crouch. His skin was bloated and blue, and brown fluid covered his shriveling lips. Dandelion screamed through her gag.

Fury glanced at Sorrow's stoic face and whispered, "Holy fuck. Who was that?"

Parasite, who was regaining consciousness from Pain's blow, grunted, "Oh, God."

"That was Parasite," Sorrow said.

"But he's…," Fury said, and then his eyes widened. "Oh. Oh, shit. Oh, holy…"

"What does this mean, boss?" asked Fear.

"Sorrow, are there bodies in the other two?" Joy asked.

"Yes. Parasite's wife in one and a man who tried to stop their murders in the other."

"Then we have to kill them." She spoke coldly, but Fear saw the pitying twitch of her lips.

"No!" Parasite shouted. "We're your prisoners. Killing us would be a war crime!"

"Wrong, Parasite, or whoever you are," Joy said. "You are only a prisoner of war if you are a soldier. You and your comrades are saboteurs."

"La Joie," Le Feu said, "his actual code name is La Glace, and he was the one who led the murder of the real Parasite."

"You are a liar, Le Feu!" Parasite shouted.

"Please spare my comrades. He made us believe that Parasite was a traitor."

"You are only trying to save your own life! You know we did all of this to protect La Joie. You knew my orders!"

"Orders from whom?" Joy asked.

Neither Le Feu nor Parasite answered.

"Kill both of us, but leave the others alive," Le Feu whispered, her dark eyes turned to Joy.

"We cannot afford prisoners, and with the evidence we have, there is no guarantee we won't be betrayed if we leave them alive." She looked at Sorrow while she spoke. He nodded somberly.

"I understand," Angelus said, the only sentence he would ever speak to the Joy.

Pain killed him with a single shot. The End drew his sidearm and shot Tonnes while he slept.

"Wait!" Parasite cried. "You need us to operate the radios!"

"My men will do it themselves," Joy said, but she knew he was right. Someone would have to operate the Nazis' radios, but it could not be Parasite. Before he could speak again, she shot him.

Fear slipped his crossbow into a holster he wore at his side and lowered his handgun to Dandelion's head.

"Please don't kill her. I'll take her place," Pierre said.

When Pain saw Fear's blank face, he translated.

"You're a fool," Fear hissed. "All of you are going to die."

He stopped Pain before he could translate to French.

"Tell him that I will take his offer," Fear said, and once he saw Pierre's encouraging smile at Dandelion, he shot the young man.

Then he breathed deeply and stepped behind Dandelion. He lowered the gun again and fired.

Of Parasite's Resistance circuit, only Le Feu was alive, kneeling with her head bowed in front of Fury. Fury's hand trembled.

"Shit," he said finally when he realized the Cobras were watching him. He dropped the gun to his side.

"I will do it for you, Fury," the End said.

"God damn it, Le Feu," Fury muttered, and throwing himself on top of her, he said, "No one is going to kill her."

"We can't take prisoners," Fear said.

"She won't be a goddamn prisoner. She's an expert on explosives, knows more than me."

"You talked to her?"

"When Sorrow went downstairs to get the Joy."

Fear sighed. "You need to stop thinking with your dick."

"Le Feu," Joy said sternly, "I will let you live if you show us where your explosives are. Do you know?"

"Yes. In fact, La Joie, I am the only one who knows."

Le Feu's pale face was tinged a sickly green.

"Shouldn't we do something about her arm?" Fury asked, touching the bolt still stuck in her shoulder.

"Don't take that out! You'll make it worse," Fear cried.

"After we get the explosives," Joy said callously.

With her uninjured arm, Le Feu slid open the false back of an upstairs wardrobe. The room around them was dim, filled with long shadows from their electric torches.

"Whose house was this?" Joy asked as Le Feu pulled a wooden box out of the hidden cabinet.

"Mine," Le Feu answered.

"And you're just going to blow it up?"

Alarm crossed Le Feu's face, and she nearly dropped the box.

"Fury, can you get the larger crates?" she asked, her voice soft and tremulous. "I can't hold them… with my arm…"

"This place holds no meaning for you?" Joy asked.

"I wasn't going to blow it up originally, but things have changed," Le Feu sighed.

"Like what?"

"We were going to leave you in that basement and take the Cobras with us. It was Parasite – La Glace's idea, of course. If they did not follow La Glace's orders, we could destroy the house remotely at any time."

"My men would have killed themselves and let you kill me before you got anywhere."

Fury paused with a crate of explosives in his hands and Le Feu's hanging coats brushing against his neck.

"They are not machines, La Joie."

"Last one," Fury said, lifting two of the crates. "These will be a lot of fucking fun to carry across France."

Sorrow froze in the middle of the dining room, his back against the table and blood speckling his face like smallpox. Blood dries quickly once it leaves the body, and a lot of blood had left these bodies; it ran together on the floor, all the same dark red. Unlike Pain, who was dragging Clement's body into the room so that he could lay by his daughter, Sorrow was unconcerned with corpses. The names of the dead – not the code names the other Cobras knew but their real names – chased through Sorrow's mind like children taunting one another in the street.

"What are we going to do with the…?" Fear asked as he crouched beside Pierre's blood-soaked body. "He wasn't a bad kid. I hate having to stare at him like this."

"He hates you," Sorrow said brusquely.

"Not much he can do now," said Fear with a timid smile.

"I wouldn't say that," the End chuckled. "I've seen some ghosts in my day, known men driven to madness by the spirits of people they killed. I even - ."

Heavy footfalls on the stairs interrupted him.

"Alright, Pain. Two more crates up there, second bedroom on the left," Joy said.

Le Feu stumbled through the doorway, and Joy caught her as she collapsed. "Fear, whatever was on your bolt, you'd better have something to cure it. I promised to let her live, and we can't go anywhere until she can walk again."

Historical Note:

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 was the first treaty to declare that a prisoner of war did not have to pay a ransom. By 1874, many of the rules for the treatment of prisoners of war were established, but it wasn't until the Third Geneva Convention in 1929 that POW status was defined. Only lawful combatants (soldiers and some guerrillas) are allowed the protections of POW status. Spies and saboteurs do not count. Of course, Parasite is asking for this status from his allies after he has obviously betrayed them. He doesn't understand the laws and customs of war. As a side note, as I believe I mentioned in an earlier chapter, the Cobra Unit, if captured, would have been killed on sight by the Germans anyway because of Hitler's Commando Order issued in 1942.