Part 2

The flexi was thrown onto the desk and travelled a short distance, before a hairy hand reached out to take it. The room was darkened, the only light coming from the moonlight outside, until the flexi was activated and partially illuminated the room.

"Do you know him?" a husky male voice asked, his features hidden by the shadows.

"Know him? This thing has been a thorn in my side for many years."

"You want him dead?"

"It's all I've ever wanted."

"You have one month to deliver."

"Seamus Harper will be dead long before that, I can guarantee my future children on that fact."

"Just kill him, and you'll get the rest of your money, if he's not dead in a month we will find you, Gerentex."

The rat like features appeared in the light of the room, a sly if hesitant smile across his face. "For this, I'd almost be inclined to pay you, but as it is, killing this pest will be a joy and the money is just a bonus."

Taking the flexi, and the first part of his payment, Gerentex left the room.


The drift was busy, hindering Harper's progress as he tried to navigate the route back to the Maru, whilst also carrying items that he could barely hold under his arms, but he was already late in returning so needed to hurry.

Being without sight didn't help, and he was relying in the flaky reception he was getting from the drifts sensors through the standard wireless remote in his port, and his hastily fixed dark glasses. The pictures being transmitted into his mind cut out every ten to fifteen seconds, and it seemed that it was always at those times that people chose to walk directly into his blinded path.

Harper's frustration grew, as his weakened arm started to buckle carrying the items he had acquired, he was still a good five minutes away from the Maru and it couldn't be further away as the goods finally slipped from his grip, just as the pictures in his mind blacked out again, leaving him blind and stranded for the moment.

Kneeling down, Harper began to gather together what he could feel for the fallen items with his good hand, whilst also trying not to drop anything else. Finally the signal returned and he was able to find the final item, and continue his hectic journey. The past couple of weeks since he'd broken his glasses had been the worse he could remember in living memory, his temper grew shorter and his patience was now non-existent. It's why he now walked alone, struggling with the items he had purchased, having snapped at everyone who offered to help him and refusing their help, in the end they'd left him to it, because it was what he had screamed he had wanted.

As the signal cut out again, plunging him into darkness once more Harper found more of his items fell from his hold, and the ridiculousness of his situation hit him hard suddenly as he collapsed to the ground with silent lonely despair. No one offered to help, they all walked around him, and he felt some people brush past him not even noticing him there, no doubt kicking all that he had purchased across the ground.

"I can't do this any more!" Harper screamed snatching his useless glasses from his face, but the noise of the drift drowned him out amongst the crowds.

Harper then felt someone stood over him, and then he could feel fur on the back of his neck, for a moment Harper froze until his logic told him a Magog would have sent all those around them screaming away in terror, but he could hear normal background noise.

"Seamus, you're as good as dead."

"Who, what?" Harper spoke with surprised shock. "I know you," he then added, recognising the tones in the voice.

"There's a bounty on your head, young Harper, and I already have half of it, I could kill you right now but I want you to suffer with the knowledge that the next time we meet, it will be to kill you, and it will be this easy."

"Gerentex?" Harper then spoke with disbelief, as the feed returned some sketchy images to his port, reverting to the drifts sensors now that he had discarded the glasses. Harper was seeing himself with Gerentex behind him, from a position high above him, probably a feed from the drift security circuit, and he relaxed immediately almost sounding disappointed.

"You are blind, that is a nice development, it's been so much fun watching you struggle," Gerentex spoke with joy. "But you sound a little down," he then added and forced the human to his feet, with Harper being able to do very little to stop him as the images to his port cut out again. "Let's go send your annoying friends a message shall we?" Gerentex announced brightly.

"What?" Harper asked, struggling now and almost breaking free, but there were too many people to bump in to, and without sight he couldn't get cleanly away.

Gerentex responded to Harper's attempts to escape by roughly ripping the remote out of the data port causing the engineer to scream out, before Harper found himself in total darkness, with his port deactivated, as he returned to complete blindness. He was pushed along, quickly losing his sense of direction as Gerentex led him down a backstreet, and soon the noise of the drift grew quieter until Harper felt Gerentex tugging at him to stop.

A cold metallic sensation pressed hard against his cheek, and the blindness didn't hinder Harper's imagination, knowing that Gerentex was holding a knife to his face, and he froze on instinct. Harper began to make the realisation that at some point, he must have really pissed off the rat face he knew as Gerentex.

"I really should kill you right now, but you know I've never liked the easy life, and I do have a month to do the job properly," Gerentex idly spoke, seemingly with all the time in the world at his disposal, and with some brightness in his voice.

"You always talk too much, and forget the actual point!" Harper snapped.

There was silence from the rat, as Harper felt the blade warming against his skin. "Do you want me to put you out of your misery?" Gerentex now asked, with an eerie seriousness. "It can't be fun, being blind and a cripple, all alone without your annoying friends to help you."

"Spend your money well," Harper simply said, answering Gerentex's question in a roundabout way.

"I never thought I'd see the day that Seamus Harper, the highly annoying scrawny human runt that has continued to bug me, would beg me to kill him," Gerentex sneered with glee, in victory.

"Harper?" a faraway cry caught both their attentions.

"Your pesky friends, I should have known that they wouldn't be far away, shame, that does mean you have to keep breathing for now," Gerentex teased, now knowing Harper's death wish.

Defiant in the face of Gerentex's threat, Harper remained unmoving and without emotion, not even reacting to the voice of Beka who continued to call his name. When Gerentex lifted up both of Harper's hands, the human did nothing to stop him as the rat faced fiend brushed the blade of his knife over Harper's unprotected wrists.

"Just do it," Harper spoke softly, almost darkly.

"I will," Gerentex smiled to Harper's unseeing eyes. "To cover my tracks, and give you grief, I can't begin to imagine what will Rebecca think when she finds this knife in your hand, and your attempt to kill yourself," Gerentex spoke evenly. "Almost makes me want to stick around, and see," he idly spoke.

Harper braced himself, as Gerentex finally went silent, a sure sign that in seconds something would happen and then it did. Harper grimaced with the sharp acute pain that erupted in his right wrist, followed rapidly by the same pain in his left wrist as the knife sliced through his fragile skin. With care Gerentex placed the knife in Harper's hand, taking care to ensure the knife was covered in the human's prints to completely cover his tracks, and make it seem like a proper attempt.

"I promise you, Harper, that when I do return to kill you, it'll be a lot more fun for the both of us," Gerentex sneered, and disappeared into the night.

Shaking now with delayed shock, Harper instinctively held both his bleeding wrists around his torso, as he collapsed to his knees. The pain was intense but strangely satisfying, as he fell to the ground and lay in the familiar and comforting darkness. It wasn't as though he hadn't thought of this, he has considered it many times but had always stopped himself with stupid hope, but now he had done it, albeit with assistance from a rat, and he embraced the slow feeling of dying that he felt, for the first time in months he felt content.

"Harper! My god, what happened, what did you do?" Beka quickly spoke as Harper felt her beside him, and as she rolled him onto his back the knife clattered to the ground from his grip.

Beka was silent, and her silence frightened Harper who had expected his friend to freak out, to yell at him, do something other than the deadly silence that now greeted him. He heard material ripping, as his head rolled slightly, and then the feeling of his wrists being wrapped tight. Beka then left him for a moment, and Harper began to feel panicked fear, before he felt himself being lifted up and then being forced to walk, as Beka took some of his weight.

"I found the stuff your brought, well most of it I think, Trance has taken them back to the Maru," Beka spoke with hurried breaths, moving quickly. "We saw you fall, but we were the other side of the square and then this procession blocked us," she continued talking without pausing for breath, as Harper wearily listened without comment. "Harper, you're not alone, ok? We'll get through this, all of us."

Harper let his head fall, tired and struggling to keep up with Beka's pace, she was carrying most of his weight now, as they continued the hectic pace back to the Maru.

TBC