Author's Notes:
I don't know if i can do another story before the new year. Especially when next chapter has the short attached to it as Chp 51(c). Happy new year to all boys and girls!
The walls were that of a natural cave been mined out to give more room for the audience as they bellowed their desires for a winning streak up on above.
*Oh! My chandis are in a twist!* The overhead commentator voiced out some humor remarks, part of his personality.
But it did little to entertain them when they'd been forced to be contestants instead of spectators. A three-link chain binded Riley, Oliver and Steve to one another by their ankles. They had a spacing of one metre away from each other but it wasn't enough to manuever on their own reflexes.
The first round had just barely finished and they were host to disbelief. A gladiatorial arena where men poured in and meat came out the other end, animals were another concern all together and as they passed the cages in the back of the arena they saw the entire menagerie of animals. Leopards, Boars, Wolves and even Tigers.
Riley thanked Ridley Scott for giving him a preview onto one of the most dangerous moments of his life. It seemed that they were the main attraction of today, the crowds bet on how long they'd survive rather than if they'll survive or not.
*Items will no longer be accepted as bets, cash only!... Sorry, grandma!*
"Damn it! How many more rounds are there!?" Steve had the right to complain this time. He'd been participating in the shooting just now to suppressed the soldiers behind cover while the wild animals approached from behind and mauled them to death. Oliver took a Molotov and threw it at the pigs which squealed as they ran around to douse the flames but ended up roasted instead. The aroma of crackling pork rose to the audiences' booths.
Some how they managed to survive with wit and carefulness. How did it lead up to this? One minute they were lounging at a nice homestead on top of the mountainside with those two british cunts the next they wake up in cages! Daisy and Liza were nowhere to be found and neither were the Kamala couple.
*It's time for another round of killing!... bhala bhala!*
The gates opened and new type of soldiers more heavily armed and armoured came through. The animals were larger and more ferocious. They knew they had to rely more that hiding from now on.
Their faces collectively fell further into despair.
-How did it turn out like this?!-
The helicopter was crammed despite Kamran's insistence that the eight of them could fit inside the troop compartment. The Marines were happily chatting away with the Marines Perkins and Stew who were dispatched to them by their immediate superior.
Ajay kept to himself, dwelling upon the conversation he had with the Homestead residence who were all aware of the status Ajay had with Mohan Ghale.
"How're you holding up, Ajay?" Noore asked with great concern in her voice.
"I'm fine, just thoughts about whether it really is him or just a ruse so daring idiot performed to play the Golden Path."
"Are you really going to kill your father? I mean, he is still your father at the end of the day, Ajay." Maya asked him.
"My father died twenty-five years ago at the porch of Ghale Homestead, whatever that-….thing is. That's not him, it might possess his will, wishes, his appearance but that's all he carries. He's nothing more than a vessel for my dad's zealous will." He replied in a cold tone. Ajay revealed his inned thoughts to them, he'd thought long and hard about it in the event he had to face him down, would he pull the trigger? Yes.
But what Ajay didn't want to reveal to them was that he held no sentiment for this progenitor other than his mother. He didn't want to say he hated him for causing his mother's heartbreak and eventual death, though she died from cancer he knew it wasn't merely a disease that ate away at her for twenty years. He hated him for causing his childhood sufferings, although that was purely childish to think that but he lived in a harsh reality nearly his entire life. And what did Mohan do all this for? It took an idiot not to see he casted them aside for his own ambitions. The crown of Kyrat and the beginnings of the Ghale Dynasty.
"Is that what you've decided for yourself or for Kyrat?"
"He waited twenty-five years to do a Houdini act. Isn't it obvious, his drive to take Kyrat for himself? If the only way of stopping him means ending his life then the answer is clear." Maya looked a little shocked as did Noore, They couldn't hide their disbelief that his resolve wasn't conflicted by family, but then neither was Mohan's. They were really alike, both unwilling to relent to the other.
"If you ever appear before your father…." Maya placed her hands upon his.
"I hope you never have to come to the ultimatum to end him. A son should never have to kill his father. If it ever comes to that, all of us hope you'd come to think likewise and spare him. Not for Kyrat's sake, not for the family but for yours."
Ajay glanced over to Noore who gave him a nod. She understood how difficult it was for him to accept it. But he had to let his hatred go so it wouldn't turn him into a monster in the skin of man which he was physically and metaphorically becoming.
Ajay opened his hand to find the pendant wheel in it.
"You're asking for the impossible…" He quietly murmured to himself on the helicopter.
"Boss?"
"It's nothing Ricardo. What are the guesses as to where they are?"
"Your guest is as good as mine, boss. Thirty square miles in a day or two, they could be anywhere in the Southern valleys."
"If I were trapped in a foreign country against my will by crazed rebels where would I go?" Perkins raised the question.
"You mean where would I hide, Golden Path is chasing me after I and my friends escaped. De Pleur chased them all the way to the Tigers territory and thought they were in Baghadur seeking asylum." Stew pointed out.
"Not the Airport, I would have just sunk my ship there. If it were Shanath you could find plenty of hiding spots amongst the bazaars there. Maybe King's Bridge, there's no safer place than the government forces forward base."
"Luca, anything in rumor mill?" Ajay asked him to check the net for any blogs about foreigners or weird coincidence in Pacchim Valley.
"Nothing weird or out of the ordinary. They're probably hiding in a cave or some place that people don't go to very often."
"…." If they were chosing the hideout option, Ajay had to act fast. Being unfamiliar with Kyrat's natural climates, they wouldn't know about the seriousness of the storm about to take place. They'd only freeze to death. He hoped the Malla couple would tell them about it.
"Please let there be a firefight!" Emilio crossed his fingers.
"Jeez, how eager are you to use Samar's new toy?" Ricardo shook his head.
"Actually, I'm kinda looking forward to having a go too." Perkins confessed.
They were openly referring to the three barrelled minigun sitting on a modified stand in Kamran's chopper. Much to the latter's disapproval, but they were running a quick insertion and retrieval mission so it justified the use of the minigun. Although there was nothing mini about it.
Weighting in at a whooping ninety kilos and not including the mount yet, the gun was dual-fed and fired an enormous 12.7x108mm heavy machine gun calibre round from the DShK heavy machine gun at a rate of 2000 rpm. This thing was a rotary beast, a short burst fire could potentially liquidate any target under a second no matter how armored of protected behind cover. How Samar designed this monstrosity from the ground up on his own, he had a lot of free time before Ajay came to Kyrat. Samar had a dream to revolutionize Kyrat's defense industry and went about publishing patented designs in Chennai, India. Perkins said he was like a Kyrati-John Browning, whoever that was. With Ajay's support and funding for projects he was already touching his life long wish in a matter of mere months.
"Who will stay in the chopper-."
"Me!" "Calling dibs!" Perkins and Emilio had already preprepared for this and announced their intentions to stay in the chopper after declaring so.
"Shit."
"Tsk!"
The others weren't so please.
"Who else besides Perkins and Emilio who will be accompanying me on the ground want a go at the minigun?" Ajay asked to which all raised their hands.
Ajay placed his hand to his head.
"What?!"
"Oh- come on!"
Emilio and Perkins expressed their displeasure.
"You have a problem with that?" But the one thing they were against was crossing Ajay's temper so they retreated.
"The closest thing in the US Military inventory to this thing is GAU-19 but that's Army, I'm Marine. I'm already not destined to touch it! But then your gun wizard pops this bad boy out, so how can I not try it!" Perkins pleaded his case, unwilling to let the gun slide.
"We're here to rescue US citizens, not pay turkey shoot with helicopter guns. They'll be other opportunities to spin it."
-Why am I even babying these idiots?-
Ajay sighed in resign.
Daisy woke up with a nasty headache, the pulsing wouldn't stop where a bump to the back of her head could be felt.
(Cling) The sound of clattering chains could be heard.
"Huh?" She looked to her hands.
Iron chains cuffed around her wrists as it did with her two feet.
"W-….What the hell…?"
As she looked around she found metal bars around or rather just around her. Daisy was locked in a 3 cubic metre cage. Why was she here? Where is here?
"Mmmm…." She quickly realized she wasn't alone in the cage, lying next to her was Liza. Just Liza.
Soon as she awoke, Liza went through the same line of events as Daisy did when she woke, albeit more frantic.
"What the hell is this!?"
"I don't know. What was the last thing you remember?"
"Uh-… Those Brits, the tall and short one let us stay in that house on the hill. They celebrated with Oli and Steve with joints and we sent our time outside at the patio because of the smoke indoors."
Daisy could now piece together her previous memories thanks to Liza's quicker memory recovery.
"We tried to look for the toilets and you heard wailing in the truck and went to check the back. And then- uh!"
Daisy and Liza came to the same recollection. Daisy investigated the truck they sat in there were large crates which they didn't bother touching when they hitched a ride but the noise made them curious, having nothing better to do they had a peek. It happened to have a cloak thrown over it and when they checked there was a lock around it, but the lock had not been closed. Perhaps out of the fellas carelessness. They opened one of the boxes to have a look and to their horror…
They found young girls and boys tembling inside.
How did they miss that even when they were sitting on board the truck for nearly an hour? Then the next minute they blacked out and woke up here.
The door in front of them unlocked as the person responsible for their kidnap was about to appear.
"I told you! Bet for five, look at them city blokes."
"You said they would hold out quite well cause they escaped the City of Pain."
"Reggie, Donald?"
Liza called out but Daisy had already deduced their predicament and placed her hand to Liza's mouth to stop her from talking as she glared icily at the two con men.
"It's Yogi! Jesus, fucking yanks man!"
"Why are you doing this?" Daisy asked coldly and they backed off slightly and merely for a pair that knocked them unconscious.
"We were nice enough to even let you lodge free of charge, but that one golden rule we told you and you broke it." Yogi said to them in a Jack Sparrowish way.
But Daisy and Liza looked at him in a puzzled way. What rule? Was what they both thought.
Yogi turned to a rather quite Reggie who was swearing behind his neck.
"You did tell'em not to look didn't you?"
"Um….. that depends how you phrase it." Yogi slapped his hand to his own face in frustration, shaking his head.
"Well whatever! They found out so its fuck them or fuck us."
"Right, mate." They came to a conclusion impressively quick.
"Where's Riley and the boys!" Daisy banged the cage bars aggressively causing them to veer back afraid.
"Oh! The compadres? Such a tragedy, because you birds had a peek at business you weren't supposed to we had to drug'em."
"But we didn't kill'em, no!"
"No."
They shook their heads.
"Although…" Yogi chuckled.
"They got to play Gladiator (Kyrat edition), yeah?"
"Yeah!" Reggie chuckled with him as if it were a joke as he lit himself a fag. But to the girls it was anything but a bag of laughter.
-Gladiator? Does he mean-….- Daisy looked up in shock and disbelief.
"And the Malla couple?... Did you do the same to the elderly?!" She shouted in anger.
"Jeez… calm your tits down, love. We ain't done nothing to 'em. Right, Reg?"
"Yeah! They're both nice and comfy taking a nap down there." Reggie motioned to the corner behind the crates where Daisy hadn't noticed.
"Relax love, the four've you are worth more than dough. You birds are worth say… ten thousand quid each, maybe more. No?" Yogi asked Reggie who shrugged his shoulders.
"Can you imagine? Day one and we already got a customer." Reggie chuckled away.
Liza's expression held one that wanted to cry out in pain. Daisy bit her lip. It was difficult to accept, after escaping De Pleur's prison they actually made it this far only to get caught again. All because they got too comfortable with some foriegners and thought because they were also not from this country they'd have some empathy but they were even worse than the Golden Path. Like Paul, they lived in this hell hole off the lives of earnest folks.
"He should be her- (Knock) (Knock) Ah! Right on time, gonna love the punctual blokes, eh?" Yogi went to answer the door while Reggie self-prepped his poker face for battering.
"Hello hello! We got them ready as soon as you asked, can I interest you in a cohiba?" Yogi popped out a cuba cigar for the eager customer of theres who picked the cigar out of Yogi's hand and placed it in his mouth.
Yogi proceeded to offer a light.
"Now on phone, we did say they were worth one hundred thousand quid, but-."
"One hundred and fifty, period for all four. Do you accept or not?"
"Sold! To the man with half the good looks- ops!" Reggie declared but backed out when he overstepped his friendliness and actually insulted their generous customer.
Two men appeared from the door and threw a bag of money with the cash he promised, they loaded the sedated old Malla couple onto the jeep that stood outside.
Daisy turned over to look at the buyer and to her horror appeared the last person she wanted to meet again. When Liza looked up she too whimpered in despair.
"Why?….." She murmured.
The buyer bent down and placed one hand on the cage to balance himself while the other retrieved the cigar from his mouth and blew some smoke out. His eyes said it was a laughable situation they got themselves into, but it was too my fortune nonetheless.
"Hello again, Daisy." Smiled the devious Sabal.
Burning wrecks which were once an armed convoy of weapons heading to resupply Banapur with freshly made arms from Pakistan courtesy of Willis lit the entire stretch of the road that the convoy occupied. Bodies of the fighters were burnt to a crisp half gotten out of their vehicles which they desperately tried to escape the hailstorm of high-explosive incendiary rounds from the smoking gatling gun that Emilio and Perkins took turns firing. Ajay gave up on those two and came to the ground to finish off the straggles and to attain some prisoners to find collect intel.
It was an especially critical supply for the Golden Path due to the coming storm. Having chance upon it by accident Ajay decided to do a little hurt to the Golden Path movement while they were at it looking for Brody's friends and to a larger extent Kamala's parents.
One such straggled stumbled onto the ground to get away from the last person he might see before his painful death.
(Bang)
Ajay shot his leg and dropped him to the floor crying out in pain. Elsewhere the Marines and mercenaries were killing off the men and tossing grenades into the undamaged supplies. The rifles and ammo they recovered and gathered aside.
Ajay appeared before the last survivor like a death god waiting to hear his last words. "P-Please-…. Mercy!... I have a family." He begged.
Ajay sighed. "And yet you joined Golden Path, where you would inevitable take away someone elses husband, wife, son, daughter. There's only so far I'd tolerate hypocrisy, warrior." Ajay unslung his autocross.
"Y-You want to know about the Great Mohan-Gyahhh!" Ajay propelled a bolt to stake his hand to the ground.
"I don't give two shits about Mohan Ghale. Fake or not, he'll take responsibility for declaring himself to me." Ajay said with a fearsome glare which restricted the man's heartbeat.
"Start telling me something that's worth a peaceful death, then you can start working your way slowly to being spared." Ajay fed him the carrot to life in his interrogation. What victim wouldn't reach out to it? The fighter gulped heavily and made his resolve to tell.
"G-Golden Path shipments…. An American agent helps us bring arms from Pakistan!"
Another bolt struck a limb of his as he yelled out in agony.
"That's common knowledge even to the Tigers now. My little gadget has seven bolts left and I intend to empty the clip."
"Hieee! Alright! OK!- What- What do you want to know?!" The man squealed.
"Don't ask me. Tell me something interesting." Ajay waved his autocross about.
"S-Sabal-…."
"Hmmm? What about him?"
"He's here!- I mean, he's nearby!"
"And what do I care about that little shrink? He's doing a better job tearing you guys apart. Or are you trying to use me to kill him?" Ajay's glared burned deep into the man's psyche as he lost control of his bladder and created a pungent puddle around him.
"H-He-H- He's here to collect-….collect the foreigners!"
"What foreigners?"
"Jason Brody's…" He didn't need to finish the sentence, as Ajay already knew. His hand reached out and clasped the man's cheeks. The man was both in pain and terrified to struggle.
"Give me a location, general direction and the numbers with him. And consider that an extension of your pig life spared."
"Shanath- Shanath Bazaar! That bastard embezzled our funds in gambling! So he received word that the foreigners that fell into the description of the ones that escaped De Pleur's City were up for buy."
The man thought he had spared himself from certain death but it was quickly ended by Ajay's cacophony at his words.
"You expect me to believe this bullshit? Human trafficking is punishable by death since it started." The man realized his mistake and quickly stampered to remedy this slight misout of information.
"It's De Pleur's activities!"
"And where is he now?" Ajay joked with him.
"This went on ever since Sabal accepted him into the Golden Path and when you were betrayed by him! H-How do you think Golden Path can still supply itself with Solomon's expensive arms?! Guuroohh!"
Ajay placed the autocross muzzle into the man's mouth.
"So let me get this straight, you sold our own people, the people that Golden Path swore to protect, the people that looked up to you as protectors of the common people. And you did all this to gather new weapons to fight Pagan?" The man could only whimper after tripping yet another landmine.
"Are you willing to confess these crimes of Golden Path to a court if granted?"
The man's mouth dropped but he quickly closed it and shook his head incessantly to save his cowardly life.
From what Ajay gathered, the man was telling the truth. Sabal had come to buy Brody's friends who somehow stubbled into the human trafficking ring that Paul initiated outside of the Royal Army's bandwidth and weren't aware of it until Ajay just heard.
Ricardo came over with the other mercenaries.
"Take him to a quiet place and record his confession." Ricardo nodded as the other mercenaries carried the smelly man now caked with urine odour to the heli.
"Jeez, he smells."
"Figures, he just pissed himself."
"Urghh!"
"Ricardo." Ajay called him just as he was about to follow them back.
"When he's confessed, kill him. Then bring the recording to Arjun." Ajay had stumbled upon a golden opportunity to make a scandal out of the Golden Path. For a long time, the Tigers had reported missing people from the refugees that appeared seeking asylum from them. Ajay was sure they couldn't have been the Royal Army, the capital punishment for kidnapping was severe and was heavily enforced by the provost. That just left the Golden Path, were they press ganging people into their ranks? That was his theory until now, he now knew what was really going on.
Paul had always been kidnapping people, his renegades were better at kidnapping than anything else. It was part of the human trafficking operation that once took place that Ajay ended immediately. If he were to say that he actually forced Paul into a tight spot to until he had no other option than to defect then he was guilty as charged.
From Yuma, he learnt about Solomon Khoo's former trades in human trafficking in Macau. Paul's deal was obviously as side deal he had with the Hong Konger, MULA for freshmeat. Occasionally, he did his part for the Golden Path by having a fraction portioned to procure arms for the Golden path from outside sources. Globalisation, somewhere in the globe was making profit out of selling his citizens. When this war was over, he'd come over and track them down and extradite them to Durgesh to live out their days. He didn't care if they had diplomatic immunity or if they shook hands with the President of the United States. They took what they shouldn't have and would pay the price eventually.
"Where'll you be headed?"
"To boil a weasel."
Brody opened his eyes after a wonderful sensation flowed through his body, the agonizing pain that had been there before was now a spa resort feeling. Gazing at his surroundings he found the cause of this spiritual injuries recovery.
Mohan had finished painting symbols upon the place which Darshan slit that wooden sword.
"Lie down or you'll wreck the formation I painstakingly drew for an hour."
"I was fine without your help, ese."
"Says the spirit that almost lost its essence right after stealing the host for himself." Mohan chuckled to himself. Brody felt slightly annoyed by this man's indifference to his provocations. He knew who he was and what he was capable of. After all…..
Mohan was the one that completed Citra's unfinished tatau. The episode in the islands was complex, while he had successfully broken off from Citra's control. The latter did not like the fact that he was living freely and out of her expectations. Her love was not love but an obsession. In fact, she had an insane obsession with him. So crazed that she inked that white boy into a the perfect vessel for his soul which she collected and performed the ritual after Jason passed out after killing him. Jason woke up not even realising something new was implanted into him and went about his killing of Hoyt and his mercenaries. The more he killed the sharper the body's edge became for him to inhabit. But of course, Citra would never let him take control of a perfect warrior's body as the first thing that came to his mind was to stab that sister of his whether he loved her or not, when it came to his freedom there was no price too great.
Citra intended to bind his soul to Jason's offspring, and that was how he would be reborn. A helpless infant for her to love and nurture into her ideal family. If he was known for being crazy in the past then Citra was a lunatic.
How he knew of Citra's power and magic, he had the same education as her by the tribe witch doctors. He knew the basis of some arts and rituals but was more keen to hone the warrior inside of him. Citra on the other hand gained complete mastery of the voodoo, and she expanded further into more ancient arts and eventually made the Rakyat base within the centre of the old temples. Where she continued to hone her power, but of course there were limits to her influence on the material world. The requisite for her powers to seduce others was for them to believe in her powers, like a witless Jason Brody or the simple Rakyat islanders. Hoyt and his privateers were obviously not in her scope of power as they didn't believe in her magic hence she was helpless in the southern islands.
"So what can I do you for?" Brody found that his movements had been restricted by Mohan through the process he was undergoing.
"Somebody obviously spent a lot of time creating this formation, a reasonably powerful witch I might add. But, with a rather crude hex formation, overly complex and full of loop holes. It tells a great deal about her."
"You should exchange notes with her over coffee sometime."
"I would like that." Mohan smiled wryly.
"Then go to hell, she shouldn't be far."
"That's a pity, I really thought there was another witch I could drain power and essence from. Witches are a rare commodity nowadays you see." Brody did his best to hide his surprise regarding Mohan, he was far crueler than he imagined. He was starting to see Hoyt's image overlap with his.
"Uh-Huh. So why stitch me up?"
"Because you're a valuable tool." Mohan gave that same pleasant smile, but was anything but pleasant after he stated his intentions with Brody.
"You mean I have valuable tools." Mohan chuckled at the young man's stubbornness to accept being pinned down by others.
"From the moment you switched places with Jason Brody you were already within my grasps. Know who pulls your strings, vessel."
It was as he feared, Mohan had redone his formation in his own design. If Mohan wanted him to run he would run, if he wanted him to kill he would kill and stop when he wanted him to stop.
"But what's not to like, you are after all fulfilling your lifelong dream. A secluded paradise where you could let fly your inner fighting potential to the fullest. Armies to run and send to their deaths, women to have your way with, treasures waiting to be found. Kyrat has all of these to offer. Is it any different from your former home?"
"…." He was just missing out the one thing Brody craved over everything else, which was his freedom. He was still this man's pinnochio to his gepetto.
"The Northern Demon holds a strong grudge against you and will likely hunt you with all his has after the coming months."
"And you want me to do something about it, right?"
"Smart boy, I'll make it worth your while. He's the biggest thorn in our side."
"Something even the Great Mohan Ghale can't deal with?" Brody mocked but failed to see any reaction from him.
"It's not that I can't do it personally or any of the devas like Vasu could. But for too long Badala has held the fears of the ranks within the Golden Path, this includes my old associates. Willis is no exception, he even has nightmares about it. So with only the Generals not afraid but the troops who shiver frightened, this army is rather redundant."
So that was what Mohan saw value in Brody for. He was Demon bait, meant to lure Badala into a suitable location for the Devas to overwhelm him. Once that was out of the way, the Golden Path had very little to fear.
"Do this, and I'll cut those strings."
-Are you serious?-
Brody wasn't so naïve to believe such a deal, he didn't climb his way to Hoyt's number two for shit. What use would he have to Mohan after that? He'd probably just sent his Devas to dispose of him after that. That being said..
"Deal."
"Quick to respond, I like that." A smile escaped Mohan's mouth.
-Deal with it for now, and then we'll see who outwits who.-
The truck drove along the quite afternoon road without hindrance from traffic, sitting in the back was Sabal, his men and their four previously escaped captives.
"Your little stun caused quite a havoc amongst my men. And poor Paul, because of you he got himself captured. Now who's gonna watch over his darling Ashley at his manor?" Sabal said with a tone of mockery.
"Still having others do the work for you I see." Daisy sent it right back at him. It would have been just a return had it not been for the men snickering away after she said that about Sabal.
"Quiet! Or I'll send the lot of you to attend to the arena!" He quickly sorted them in line.
"As I was saying, in the end of the day it's the end result that matters." Seeing Daisy and to a larger extent Liza's faces fall was a refreshing sight for him. He released a slight chuckle, it had been the first in a long time since he had actually had decent fortune.
It definitely meant he had good karm- (BOOM)
"What was that?!"
*The lead car has been hit! All units dismount!* Called out the commander of the convoy.
All of the fighter alighted their vehicles, they were presently upon a bridge and throught that the struts could provide ample cover and there would be only two points of attack from front and back. It was then that they regretted their decision greatly.
The sound of a rapid chopping board ripped through the air, the result were bodies being shredded by high velocity rounds.
"Chopper! Three o clock!"
There first instinct was to seek cover from the armament that had the power to down them in seconds. Their first mistake.
Smoke canisters fell at their feet from the front.
"Attack from the front! Keep your eyes peeled!"
(Boom) A roar of a cannon resounded and took the lives of some warriors in the lead section, they turned into paste.
After the loud shot, everything went quiet at the front. Fighters gathered around where Sabal had alighted as there was only one reason this convoy could possibly be attacked for.
The sound of a break action and the ejection of the spent shells was nerve wrecking. There was talk of a weapon like that amongst the Golden Path. Only one person wielded such a godless weapon as his weapon of choice.
The smoke cleared and revealed the monster before them that took no precautions in seeking cover.
"B-…Badala…" One whispered.
"Why-…. Why is he here?!" They murmured amongst themselves while raising their weapons at him from the cover of the vehicles turned to act as provisional cover and as a barricade.
Sabal grit his teeth, everyrtime he enjoyed a near victory it was always thwarted by that man.
"You want to stand in my way again? BADALA!"
Ajay shouldered "Slayer".
"It thought I should remind all of you that Mohan's appearance makes not difference to what Golden Path becomes should it persist."
"Like we have a choice, between a rotten government and a liberator who do you think we'd choose?!" One of the fighters announced to Sabal's surprise and Ajay's astounishment.
"You surely are right that the head of state is unjust maybe even cruel. I've done as much as I could to fix that and I'm seeing improvement. But it only gets fixed from the inside, if you wanted protest it should have been in peaceful ways and demonstrations, not taking up arms and opposing the crown. Because it only forces their hand in raising it against the ones that raise theirs against them. I told this to Amita and I'm telling this to you now. Never threaten the other party's comforts and way of living until you bear that strength."
The fighters were temporarily astounded, somehow the fighter that declared this had not been rebuked with bullets but a fair debate with the Northern Demon. Somehow losing their will to fight, even momentarily. They'd never believed he was so diplomatic, had the same been done with Amita and the Tigers they once called brothers and sisters?
"I'm here for only one thing, Kamala's parents and Brody's friends. If you could accommodate things for me, I'll do the same for you. We don't have to spill blood this day." These folks were a rare group, they asked questions which was rather odd amongst the Golden path which killed and asked their leaders for instructions.
"Are you all so naïve as to believe a mass murderer of thousands of our kin?!" Sabal tried to salvage the situation.
"That's rich coming from you." The commander of the convoy snorted.
Sabal snatched up a rifle and tried to initiate a firefight between Badala and his men. But the Commander pointed his handgun at his head.
"Don't push me over the edge, cretin! Mohan might favour you but if you get in our way that will be the end of it."
"Tsk!"
"You seem to be a fairly reasonable fellow, what might I call you?"
"Loken Kaji, Commander of the 13th Scouting group. I survived your work in the Meh Teh Offensive, scouting the forward elements of the group and was pused to the rear when no longer needed, that's how I and a few others survived. Ever since then… I just never expected to meet you again in such circumstances."
"Then Loken, to what can I offer you and your men is rather straightforward. To be honest you are the first batch of fighters that actually have rational thought. I can offer all of you refuge in the Uttar region, housing, employment, salaries. Everything will be provided for, no one will discriminate against you for once being Golden Path. If that isn't enough, we can negotiate with you further elsewhere out of the open. You can still hold on to the prisoners if you want until we come to a resounding conclusion."
The fighters couldn't believe how accommodating the demon was being to them, it was almost too good to be true. If Ajay wasn't wrong, these were the survivors of the massacre of the Airprot offensive that relegated to the reserve or rear-echelons as they became battle-weary with the killings that unfolded that day. They were still loyal to the cause and were slightly better than the groups that just abandoned Golden Path and returned to their homes and tended to their fields.
Seeing treachery unfold before him, Sabal couldn't bear it any further and ranted and roared their disloyalty.
"Shut up, you coward! You call us disloyal but what about you?!"
The other fighters joined in belittling Sabal and threatening to kill him.
"What do you want to do with Sabal?" The Commander asked.
"Do whatever you wish with him, my suggestion is to let him run back to Banapur emptyhanded and see if Mohan still favors him." Ajay grinned to Sabal's displeasure.
-Badala! You bastard! You manipulate my men against me?! How dare you!-
The chopper loomed overhead with that frightening weapon that obliterated the front and rear sections of their convoy which told of its power.
"Kamran, hover away for a bit. You're making my clients uncomfortable, and take those two idiots of the gun."
*Roger. I'll be loitering about if you need me.*
The helicopter bearing the royal markings backed off slightly into the distance. Seeing him give instructions to the helicopter made them have a bit of respect for him.
But there was a moment of breaking sight between them and Sabal who took the opportunity to dash into the back of the truck and pulled out one of the hostages. Hold her at knife point.
"Urgh-.. lemme go! You creep!" The woman shouted.
"Drop the knife, you bastard!" Now all guns were trailed onto Sabal in a twist of irony.
Ajay couldn't see the person through the crowd and walked right through. The fighters did nothing to stop him and parted way for him.
Then his expectation blew away from him.
When he looked at the hostage in his grasp a stream of memories poured into his head. There was some age to her but the features were unmistakable hers. Ajay's heart started to palpitate and an expression of unease was caught by Sabal who smirked after gaining control of the situation again.
Why was she here? Of all people, why was she amongst Jason's friends?
His mouth uncontrollably mouthed out her name, the name of the person whose kindness and love he once took for granted so many years ago.
"…Daisy?"
Author's Notes:
To be honest, i don't like Reggie and Yogi at all. Why Ajay hesistated in shooting them after returning to the Ghale Homestead was beyond me.
But we can soon fix that.
