A/N: Sorry for the wait. I got into this chapter and it started fighting me something awful. I finally found the right words to give and I hope you enjoy them. Also tell me what you think of my using the actual Russian language. If you think it enhances the story I will start doing partial translations for chinglish. I mean Shenhua.
Chapter 8
The small launches were packed to the gunwales with the scruffiest looking Vietnamese men that anyone could ever attest to having seen. Though mostly armed with AKs there was a mish mash of other weapons. One was even armed with what appeared to be a human femur with the ball coated in iron. All in all they were indistinguishable from almost any other group of pirates in the area.
That did not impress the Black Lagoon's crew. Mostly because they couldn't see the occupants of the quartet of small watercraft. Nor could said occupants see them. They all knew the other was there, and the pirates were nervous.
The prowess of Revy Two Hands was well known all over the Southeast Asian criminal underworld. Several cartels had a bounty out for her guns. Some wanted her taken alive to be broken down and sold as a sex slave. Others sent her letters asking her not to wipe them out for fun. Ethan had thought the last one was a joke that Benny had made up until Revy showed him one of those letters.
The four boats split and went to either side of the larger vessel. Upon reaching a few yards from the stern of the PT boat the pirates noticed two shapes standing at either side. They clearly recognized Revy on the port, and a larger male figure to starboard, and both holding a pair of handguns.
One of the pirates on the side with the male got brave and leveled his gun, only to take an expertly placed snapshot through the eye from his intended target. The man stood there his pistol seeming to suck in all the light around it. Then he raised the twin to it as Revy leveled hers.
Rock watched from a partially opened hatchway as they started firing. He had seen Revy massacre people many times. However something was different. Somehow she and Ethan fell into sync. The sounds of their guns seemed to weave together to the point that you could not tell who fired. Looking at the launches that he could see one was filled with corpses, the other was trying to turn away but could not out run the projectiles flying from the muzzles of Ethan's pistols.
Silence suddenly ensued. The three members of the Lagoon's crew who had not participated emerged from the cabin and were shocked by the sight. The pirates never fired a single round. Their corpse either filled the boats or floated near them, staining the once blue water a sickly crimson. The boats were starting to take on water from the plethora of holes lining their hulls. And the two responsible still stood their guns outstretched, smoke pouring from the barrels and open chambers.
Benny, though he knew the kind of carnage Revy could make, was unprepared for the sight and rushed to the side of the PT boat to empty his stomach. Rock was somewhat shocked, but took it in better stride than the computer expert. Dutch could only gaze in wonder and amazement of what two people who did not exactly get along all that well could do.
It may have come from the fact they were not too different from each other, or their expertise in a fight, but they showed a true talent for taking lives. The true beauty was in how they mirrored each others pose, feet planted shoulder width apart, and their arms outstretched with the guns at a slight angle from their bodies. Had he not had as much sense he would have tried to take a picture of them, he knew better than to even try to remember where the camera was.
The peace was finally ended when first one set then another of slide releases were triggered and the guns closed off the chambers to the outside world. Revy returned her cutlasses to the places beneath her arms as Ethan slid his into place at his hips.
"I don't think that was supposed to be what happened. Can't say that I don't appreciate the results though. If you need me I am going to go take a nap in the engine room," the desperado said as he turned toward the appropriate hatchway.
Benny stood from where he was hunched over the side, "HOW THE FUCK CAN THIS NOT BOTHER YOU. HOW I HAVE NOT EVEN REACTED BEFORE NOW I DON'T KNOW. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOUR HEADS THAT YOU CAN DO THIS..." Dutch hit him just under the chin flooring him.
Ethan had stopped during the rant. Everyone just looked at him. He clenched his hands around the grips of the paired weapons he wore. His breathing became ragged.
Turning he stepped over to the geek, "You think this is easy for anyone. Killing takes something out of a person. No I don't have the ability to feel the same set of emotions you do. Most of them have been killed off by doing things like this. The most of what I can feel is recoil. If you are ever forced to pull the trigger on some poor son of a bitch you will understand. Does this bother me, quite frankly no. This is nothing compared to some of the shit I did in Africa. You have no right to judge me or Revy, you cannot relate to us," he drew his right hand gun, tripped the mag release, and slammed a mag home and shoved the gun in Benny's hand, "However if it bothers you so much put me down. The trigger on that gun breaks at 3lbs. it barely takes a jerk to set it off. Its loaded with soft point FMJ rounds. I will have a perfect hole in my skull going in, and no back to my skull."
Benny lifted the weapon in perfect line with the mercenaries heart. For several minutes time seemed to stand still. Then he let the Beretta fall. Ethan retrieved it and disappeared into the bowels of the boat. Revy followed after him.
"Did he really do that Dutch?," Rock asked.
The black man didn't say anything for several minutes. He was still piecing it together. He had not expected it. He hadn't expected Benny to fall out like that.
"That was the action of a man who has just done something he wholeheartedly wished had not been a necessity. To him that was something minor, something that was not a drop in the bucket of what he had done. He was serious though. He would not have faulted him for pulling the trigger. However Revy found it fun. Something in her mind is messed up, and she revels in blood. However much you think you may know her Rock, you don't even have an idea."
The Black Lagoon smoothly glided into her berth in Roanapur's small port. Ethan hopped onto the concrete side with the hawser and secured it to the cleat. Were they at some other port they would have been required to have multiple hawsers secured, but in this city it could mean the difference between the vessel hitting open water or being sank at its moors.
Dutch threw down the plank and the others shuffled off. Usually there was banter thrown around during this operation, but this day there was silence. The massacre committed by the two gunners still hung over the crew. Benny had calmed down and collected himself. Rock had continued to think on what Dutch had said to him. And the boss went up to the warehouse office to call Chang to send a crew to get the cargo.
Ethan and Revy stuck together closer than usual. Benny's rant had consolidated them in who they were. Killers and criminals. Outcasts in a city of outcasts. Ethan one who had resigned himself, Revy one who reveled in it. Street trash that had found their place in the world.
"Dutch, I heard something funny coming from the port side water intake. I'm going to stay and look it over. Last thing we need is for it to go out in the middle of the South China Sea with some of the characters out for our heads," Ethan said walking toward a small locker that held an aqualung he used to do underwater inspections.
Dutch only nodded and gave a grunt. The other four left the warehouse leaving Ethan alone in the building. He stopped when he heard the car drive off. Suddenly he sent his fist straight out to the side and dented the steel wall. He didn't really register the pain, too much was going through his head at the moment.
The pirates had all been men out for an easy buck and without a shit for human life. One of them splatters some poor S.O.B.'s skull and it happens. For him it took something from his soul, and there wasn't much left there to lose. Every time he took a life he expected to just fall over dead as punishment for his sins. He deserved to at that. At one time he was Revy. Kill, kill, kill. Fun, fun, fun. But he grew up, she hadn't.
He clenched his fists and listened to the bones pop and the skin strain around the scars that decorated his knuckles. Mementos of actions he had done in the past. Physical manifestations of the crimes most people had probably forgotten by not. Avatars of the pain he felt. Memories that he could not erase, no matter how many bottles or women or whatever else he went through. There was no atonement for him in his mind.
He waited a while longer and then left for the Lagoon Company's office and his bed. Nobody molested him on the way there. The locals had started to equate him with Revy and Dutch and didn't want to incur their wrath, nor the wrath of the crime syndicates that were their friends. Really didn't matter to him, for all he knew one of these pathetic street thugs carried his bullet. The one that would put him in a box six down.
The night air really didn't help him on this night. Benny had spoken words that not many people would have had the courage to say after seeing that. They were words that needed to be said. What had happened to the pair of gunslingers to make them how they were was individual, and extremely painful to each. Their stories belonged to them and it would be an extreme situation before they told anyone the full version.
All the traffic around him was drowned out by his thoughts. Unbeknownst to him a large black SUV veered slightly and headed straight at him. With a great roar the driver let the engine wide open and accelerated full bore at the man. Hearing the din Ethan glanced behind him and jumped to the side, drawing his guns and riddling the driver side of the windshield with 9mm.
Seconds passed as Ethan lay in the street, his guns aimed at the vehicle that was smoking from hitting a building. He stood and popped the empty magazines from his guns and replaced them with fresh ones. Approaching the hulk the back door swung open and an occupant hit the ground. It didn't take a split second for him to register the AN94 rifle on the ground next to the dazed figure. Scanning the vehicle he ascertained that the other two occupants were deceased. The driver from a plethora of bullet holes in his head, and the passenger, a female with a AKS-74U, had been killed by a broken neck when the truck hit the building. Ethan looked down at the third individual as he kicked the gun away.
"Сукин сын (Son of a bitch)," the soldier said as he recovered.
Ethan snickered and addressed him, "Вы поцеловать вашу мать с этот рот? (Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?)"
"Вы американский диплом пятно, вы убили Олег и Галина. Вы действительно трахал себя теперь. Галина была любимая дочь полковника Бугаков. Вы принесли вниз гнева спецназ сейчас.(You American cumstain, you killed Oleg and Galina. You really fucked yourself now. Galina was the beloved daughter of Colonel Bugakov. You have brought down the wrath of the spetsnaz now.)"
"Один. Это был unneccesarily графики. Два. Кто является полковник Бугаков. (One. That was unneccesarily graphic. Two. Who is Colonel Bugakov.)"
The foul mouth Russian smiled as he said his next piece, "Он — брат человек, которого вы не смогли защитить. (He is the brother of the man you failed to protect.)"
Ethan closed his eyes, "Спасибо (Thank you.)," he then put a hole between the man's eyes.
In all the eventualities he had kept in mind he had not planned for there to be a psycho Russian on a revenge kick after his ass. While he wasn't surprised he still had not planned on it. It gave him very few viable options on how to handle the situation.
Option 1- Get the fuck out of Dodge and don't stop in fucking Reno.
Option 2- Ask Revy and Dutch for help fighting them. Revy would love him for it.
Option 3(the most tenable)- Ask Balalaika and her men for help after explaining the situation to them.
Grabbing the AN94 he hightailed it to Hotel Moscow. Being as he didn't have an appointment he figured that if they were really military men they would fawn over the gun like school girls and that would get him past the front door.