Thanks to all who have taken the time to comment, very appreciated! Hope you enjoy the rest….
Part 8
Harper walked along the main street of the drift, hands in pockets as he blended in with the local scene. It had taken all his efforts to persuade Beka to let him go alone, he needed the space and time to think about things, especially his future.
The best place to do this, he decided, was the local bar and with a pocketful of thrones to hand; he wasted no time in finding the nearest one. Ordering a beer, Harper glanced around and saw some lively guys in the corner, their loud voices attracting a lot of attention.
"Ignore them, son," the barkeep now spoke, as he handed the beer over and took the money from Harper.
"Who are they?" Harper idly asked.
"The local yobs," the bar keep spoke, glancing at the rowdy youths.
"Yobs?" Harper questioned.
"It's what we call them, local slang for hooligans, troublemakers," the barkeeper answered cagily, looking at Harper now as an outsider. "They are always up to no good, under the thin guise of making this place safer, when it is them who give this drift a bad name," the barkeep sounded tired, as he spoke. "They have nothing better to do than terrorise anyone or thing that crosses them," he offered. "You see that loud one?"
"They are all loud," Harper remarked with a smirk.
"The especially loud one, tall with the short black hair, that's Barton, the leader of the crowd," the barkeeper stated. "Those two either side of him are his lackeys, Rossi and Piper, not so bright but will do anything that Barton tells them," he frowned. "The whole drift is scared of them and their gang, and business has dropped by nearly fifty percent since they started acting as if they own this place."
"Why doesn't the law just move them on?" Harper idly asked, as he slowly drank his beer, catching glances at the gang in question. There were about thirty youths around three tables, making very loud gestures but not caring about the attention they were drawing.
"They are the law, at least in the sense that no one questions them or crosses them without paying the price," the barkeeper cleaned a couple of glasses now. "Take my advice, do what you have to do here and leave quickly, don't hang around to give them an excuse to dislike you."
"Nice selling point to get people to visit this place," Harper frowned, returning his attention to his beer. "Well I'm not in town for long, just passing, so I'm sure I can avoid them," Harper added, as he took another gulp of his beer and savoured the glorious feel of the liquid running down his throat.
"Well just be careful, they target youngsters like you," the barkeep continued.
"Like me?" Harper checked unsure.
"Young, streetwise looking, like yourself," the barkeep explained, gesturing to Harper's attire.
"Well I have a job, and a reputation that I don't want being messed up by street punks, or yobs, whatever you call them," Harper stated. "Anyway, why are they so upbeat?" he asked, seeing them continuingly hitting glasses together in a show of triumph.
"They got themselves a Magog earlier," the barkeeper explained.
Harper raised his eyebrows. "A Magog, shesh, I thought it was only kludges that celebrated that sort of capture," Harper offered, trying to disguise his own background.
"Kludges?" the barkeep questioned now.
"Local slang, where I come from," Harper knowingly smiled.
The barkeep returned the smile. "Well, we don't get many Magog visiting this drift, and we haven't got the fancy security that some drifts have," the barkeeper continued to explain, as he dried some more glasses. "So these boys set out to capture it, and I have to say there are a few people still in the queue to buy these boys a drink for doing so."
Harper took another gulp of his beer before he suddenly put the pieces together, and he slammed his glass down. "When was this Magog captured?" he asked.
"About four hours ago," the barkeep returned.
Harper moved away from the bar and activated his communications via his data port. "Beka, Dylan, Rommie, anyone?" Harper requested in hushed tones.
"Go ahead, Harper, Dylan here," Dylan returned briskly.
"Did Rev leave the ship?" he asked quietly.
"Harper," Dylan's voice hesitated, immediately sounding guilty.
"Just tell me," Harper demanded with hushed urgency.
"I think he left roughly four and a half hours ago," Dylan promptly responded.
"Crap," Harper replied, looking at the gang of young adults still celebrating.
"Harper, what is it?" Dylan asked with more urgency now.
"Nothing," Harper instinctively stated. "At least, I don't think so, I'm not sure, look I'll be in touch," he closed communications and when he heard the incessant buzzing in his neck of Dylan trying to re-establish communicate he deactivated the signal.
Harper returned to the bar. "Do you know what these guys have done with the Magog?"
"Last I heard them say they had him strung up over by main generator plant," the barkeep explained casually.
Harper hit the bar. "Where is that?" he asked. "I'd like to pay this Magog my own respects, you know?" he added with a sneer. "Got some debts to pay to the monsters," he stressed when the barkeep appeared to hesitate.
"Just buy the yobs a drink like everyone else," the barkeeper suggested.
"You really want them to be drunker than they already are? Look, I just want to see," Harper insisted now. "I've lost family to those freaks."
Finally the barkeep seemed to understand. "Turn left out of here, keep heading north and then you'll see the smoke rising, that's the building and I assume he must be around the bridge area, if they have him strung up."
Without another thought, knowing a friend could be in trouble, Harper thanked the man before promptly leaving and hurrying off to check for himself what he suspected.
The motion was causing nausea now, and the ground below seemed to swirl endlessly as he swung. Rev could feel the pressure in his head, as his body remained upside down, swinging precariously over the bridge by a single piece of rope that was tied tightly around his ankle. He remembered very little, but did remember deciding to just take a quick walk around the drift whilst it was simulated dark to clear his head, rather than bother Beka Valentine for a trip down to the mountains as Dylan had suggested, she didn't appear to be too pleased with him right now.
The Magog rarely regretted his decisions, but now was a good time to do so, this was the second time in so many months that he had found himself in this position, briefly remembering the High Guard kids. He felt beaten and his illness was really affecting him now. Rev just wanted to lie down and relax, or meditate, as he really was feeling it now.
"Rev?" a voice broke through, sounding breathless but somehow familiar. "Rev, is that you down there?"
"Harper?" Rev gruffly returned, with surprise in his voice, it had been the last voice he had expected to hear.
"Hang on," Harper offered with the confirmation, and Rev began to feel the rope but pulled up. "We'll get you back to the ship before those local kids return."
"Harper, how did you find me?" Rev tried to ask, but Harper was too consumed with his efforts in pulling the Magog up to answer. It took a good few minutes, but the rope thankfully held, as Harper gave one final tug, allowing Rev to get some purchase on the bridge, and he pulled himself up. Harper gave him only a little assistance in climbing over the rail, before they both semi-collapsed on the ground with exhaustion.
"Master Harper, how did you find me?" Rev asked as he removed the rope from his ankle, and seeing how tired the exertion had made the human.
"I was in the bar," Harper panted. "Overheard the goons, or yobs as they're referred to here, that did this," Harper explained between heavy breaths, wiping his brow.
"We should go, before they return," Rev warned. "I thank you for your efforts in rescuing me."
"Yeah, well," Harper got to his feet with some effort, shrugging off the thanks. "It's what friends do, right?"
"So we are still friends?" Rev checked, as they began to hurry away, it had been the first time he had even seen Harper since he had paralysed him.
"Yeah," Harper offered, distracted by sudden shouts that they heard behind them. "Let's not have the heart to heart now," Harper encouraged and they both quickened their pace.
They didn't get far before Harper stumbled, and Rev was quickly by his side seeing that exhaustion seemed to be the cause. "Harper?" he spoke with concern to the fallen human who was having trouble catching his breath.
Breathing heavily, Harper attempted to get up but his legs failed him each time. Even with Rev's encouragement, Harper was unable to recover as he gasped for breath now truly exhausted, and so Rev pulled him back into a nearby ally.
"Breath deep, Harper, and slowly, don't rush," Rev stressed, and he checked Harper's forehead, feeling the heat of his illness, and seeing the panic and tension in the human, unsure if it was his touch or the overall distress that caused it. "You've simply over exerted yourself, we can wait a few minutes whilst you recover," he assured him, even with the frenzied shouts that now surrounded them both, as the goons discovered Rev's escape.
"Man," Harper gasped. "This illness sucks," he added.
"I too am feeling the effects," Rev agreed, but his suffering was less obvious.
"They will find us," Harper stressed, hearing that the shouts were even closer now. "It's just like old times, right, being chased off of drifts?" he then grinned with mad enthusiasm.
Rev glanced out to the street with concern, and saw at least ten young men now checking everywhere, and he had to concede that it wouldn't be long before they found the ally where they hid. Unlike old times, he wasn't sure now that they would escape.
"You have to say I attacked you," Rev quickly decided.
"Rev, you were hanging down by ten feet at least," Harper protested, and his head rolled slightly. "Not even a super fit uber could ascend that height solo, after hanging for so long, and they beat you right?" Harper checked, seeing no evidence but just guessing, as the Magog nodded. "They'll know you had help," he gasped, looking frantically down the ally where the voices grew louder.
"If they discover you helped me, Seamus," Rev began, and then paused. "These men are very uneducated, and not enlightened like yourself, they will not understand your reasons for helping me."
"I know how they think," Harper stressed angrily. "I used to be just like them," he added with conviction, but avoiding Rev's stare now.
"Fact remains that you can not let it be known that you helped me," Rev stressed.
"Fact is, these guys won't believe me one way or another," Harper countered. "I know this because I wouldn't have believed me in this situation."
"We should still try," Rev stated.
With determination Harper showed no sign that he was prepared to let Rev take on the gang alone, he felt it was his fight too now, and he wasn't going to back out. "I won't lie, Rev, you're not suggesting I lie?" Harper asked knowingly, and with spite.
Rev paused as he looked at Harper, who was using his own strict code of conduct against him. "A white lie to protect yourself is not as bad as a true lie."
"I was once told by a wise Magog that a lie is a lie, no matter how you dress it up," Harper argued, and then they heard voices close by. "And you owe me," he simply added without reason, and Rev's guilt was plain to see in his eyes.
"Sometimes that marvellous mind of yours is your own worse enemy, Master Harper," Rev conceded with concern.
"Rev, I came to help you, to help you," Harper offered with conviction, still catching his breath. "Admittedly I've done a sucky job of it so far, but if I stop now," Harper stated, glancing once more towards the sound of the voices. "Then I'm no better than the idiots that want your blood heading this way, and you keep telling me I'm special, right?"
Rev seemed mad at Harper now, but only due to his stubbornness. "Then you leave me no choice, I will go and give you no choice but to stay, you will not be able to follow me in your current condition," Rev said with his own conviction. "Harper, I can not ask you, nor will I endanger you for a second time in so many days," Rev determined strongly.
"Stay," Harper grabbed hold of Rev's arm, preventing the Magog from leaving and showing his own conviction by making physical contact with the Magog, as he just stared at Rev for a moment. "These guys will not stop their pursuit of you, and I have a homing beacon inside of me with my data port, better chance of a rescue, Rommie will locate me quickly enough, right?"
"Master Harper I can not ask this of you," Rev protested, but he was giving Harper's words some thought.
"Now you have no choice," Harper responded with resignation. "And besides, Beka will kill me if anything happens to you," he spoke, and seconds later a group of young men appeared, and quickly surrounded them.
Rev stood beside Harper and his guilt now rose, knowing that the young human was as stubborn as they came but this time he felt that Harper was wrong, if he was indeed only doing this out of obligation to Beka.
End of Part 8
