"Hey, Ethan. We are wheels down in ten according to the pilot. You feeling any better," Rock woke him slowly.
Ethan sat up on the bench that he was sleeping on, "Yeah, just feels like I poured napalm in the wounds, rather than thermite. I am starting to wish that I had taken Sofiya's offer to return on the ship, rather than fly. Thanks for waking me up."
He started working the stiffness out of his joints. Was he getting old, or was it just having been run over by a garbage truck out of nowhere. Standing he felt every bone in his spine pop, and release from where they had been compressed as he slept. If he thought back, he had started feeling like this even as far back as his early twenties. It was probably more the life he lead, than how far into it he had gotten.
He looked over at the Sig in the shoulder holster laying on a table across the room. He wasn't sure how long he had owned the weapon, it had been a few years. It was a P226 in 9x19mm Parabellum, parkerized finish, and had been tuned by the factory to perfection and his requirements, and it just didn't feel right anymore. He knew the gun to every part, and it felt like an extension of his hand, but it just, wasn't who he was anymore.
He wasn't civilized. He was on the fringes of what that pistol represented. His M9s, they were the guns of a warfighter. His Delta Elites, they were really more just a showy thing that would leave an impression. His .38, that old Smith and Wesson Model 10 police revolver, it fit him right though. It was the gun that matched him best now, old and outdated in the world. It, started to rise in the back of his mind, something he remembered Manuel said.
"Caleb, one day you will want to leave this. Guerra is, hard on a man. I am almost sixty years old now, and have been fighting, either as a soldado or a mercenario for almost forty years. One day, I want both of us to find a nice rancho to buy, and leave this behind. I never got to have my own hijo, and you have done so much to bring me out of what I had fallen into. You, deserve to be more than just an asesino de alquiler. We have quite a nido de huevos between us, lets make this convoy our last hurra," the old man had said a week before he died.
He sat back down and quietly said to himself, "Manuel, I know I must have disappointed you. I know how you wanted me to get out of this life, and I am to that point that I want out. I wish, that we could have had that ranch you wanted for us, that I could have found a nice woman, and had you a grandchild. I missed so many chances, to live out your dream, and now I have people that rely on me that I can't bring myself to leave. I might end up dying in this god forsaken hellhole of a city, but if I get the chance, I think I want to find myself a good piece of land, and a good piece of ass in your memory."
"Done talking to yourself like a creep," Revy handed him a beer as she sat down next to him.
"I was, just, I guess saying a bit of a prayer to the old merc that took me under his wing. Remember me saying that he got gunned down in Columbia, sometime in eighty two," he told her.
"Yeah, I think I remember you saying something about that. I didn't pay that much attention at the time, but what of it?"
He popped the can and took a drink, "That was supposed to be the last job we did. We were planning to find a ranch after, and leave the violent life behind. Manuel wasn't a young man then, he was in his late fifties. He spent a few years in the Mexican Army, and then went freelance. He was a vicious mother fucker when I met him, and in just a few weeks he changed. He taught me everything I knew at the time about fighting, about killing. He," he didn't even know what to say about the man after that.
"Sounds like you really loved him like a father. Wish I could have had someone that wanted to take me out all the shit. Chang pretty much is my adopted father, but he never took me away, or even talked about it. He made me hard enough to survive the city. He made me a better killer. Do you really want to leave all this behind," she asked him.
"And leave you to finally get yourself killed? I can't do that, Rock might cry, and nobody wants to see that," he bumped her with a shoulder as they both laughed.
"I can't really imagine leaving. I think about it, but I don't have anything I could do besides what I do now. I, guess I am stuck in it until I die, either naturally, or most likely violently. We hitting the Flag when we get back," she asked.
"Yeah, what else would we do? Go home and sleep, are you becoming an old fucking woman or something," he said.
"Fuck you. Prepare to eat hardwood, I'm drinking you under the table," she came back with a smile.
"In your fucking dreams, you have never drank me under the table," he hugged her with one arm.
Revy's mood suddenly got a little dark, "Are you planning to go back to them someday? For good?"
Ethan sighed, "I don't know Revy. I spent so long hating them, and I don't know that everything is resolved. I would like to get to know Jennifer, get to have a real little sister. You know I love you as one, but there is something different about having one by blood. Well, not blood spilled anyways."
"Thank god, I know that car. We are home," Revy said as they came down the stairs of the small jet.
"Hey Revy, destroy any states while you were gone," Benny called out.
Rock snorted, "No, but not from a lack of trying. Is Roanapur still there?"
"Was a couple of hours ago. Knowing that place, well Hell Rock, I am amazed we aren't seeing the smoke already," Dutch said as they finally reached them.
"This is going to be a sucky drive back though. Revy, the bitch sits bitch, otherwise, this is going to really be hell," Ethan had a big smile on his face.
"Fuck you, find your own ride if you are going to act like that. Bitch sits bitch, what is this, a bad fucking porno setup," she flipped him the bird.
It did end up with Revy sitting in the center of the back seat, but with Benny and Rock. Ethan ended up driving. The airport was about an hour and a half from the city, the topography of the area of the mainland not making it a profitable venture to level anywhere nearer to the island. There were a few small villages that broke up the monotony of the scenery. They chatted about random things as they headed back. It was nice, and peaceful as they could get in the area.
In a way it continued on for the entire drive, until they reached the bridge. Ethan stopped and looked at the most striking element. A single weathered noose, something that no one knew the truth of, except that it existed.
"Something up," Dutch asked.
"There was an old superstition back in Texas that I heard as a kid. If you pass under a hanging rope, you will be the next swinging from it. I have to wonder, just how long any of us have in this place. Shit, I fucked the mood right up the ass didn't I. Sorry about that," he said as he gave the old muscle car some gas and crossed the bridge.
The rest of the drive was quiet. Ethan's question, was a good one. This was the City of the Dead, not the living. Everyone was just a step away from the grave no matter what they did. They didn't have a guarantee they wouldn't take a bullet to the back of their head just so someone could get their rocks off. Ethan was an old killer at this point, so these kind of questions weren't that unusual, but this was the first time that one held such weight in it.
They finally arrived to the Yellow Flag, and entered in a somber mood. Most of the tables were occupied as usual, the same scum as usual. It was something a person could question, but the bar was always unoccupied when they entered. It didn't bother them as that was their preferred seats.
"Oh, great. I thought that I was finally free of you. What do you want," Bao was in as bad a mood as usual.
"Barcardi, Jack, couple beers, and a shot of tequila," Dutch said as they sat.
"Yeah, coming up," the Vietnamese man said sourly.
Ethan surveyed the bar, and noticed a curious individual that seemed to be in the process of being harried by some dudes. He, didn't know what he was looking at. The guy's hair was silver, he wore mirrored glassed, and was wearing a trench coat in fucking ninety five degree weather and eighty percent humidity. The distance was far enough he couldn't understand under the words, but he was going to take pity.
As he approached he heard the man's response, "I haven't a quarrel with any of you. I have no desire to spill any blood, ughh," the blow he received looked brutal.
"Uh, I hate to interrupt your fun my fine gentleman, but leave him alone before I have to beat you to death," he said.
"What the, oh, you're alive. Let's leave, very calmly," the man started to come around with a hand on his gun, but he must have known Ethan in one of his past lives with the way he left the building.
"I have no fucking idea who that was. Must have killed someone he knew brutally. Hey, you, you ok," he looked down at the odd individual.
"Yes, I hurt, but I believe that any damage is fleeting," he said as he got to his feet.
"Hey Lotton, how have you been. I didn't see you the last time we had to have Sawyer come out, everything been ok," Rock had waited until the thugs had left to come over.
"It has become better. I had, broken my leg, falling off a container after someone shot me before I could finish introducing myself," Lotton told them.
"Wait, you know this joke? An introduction speech, are you one of those... What was that word that Japanese kid told me it was, uh, chunibiyo, I think it was," Ethan was finding his speech patterns hilarious.
"Yeah, in English, eight grade syndrome. Lotton, you really need to grow out of that before someone shoots at your head. Do your guns even work, I swear I haven't even heard of you shooting anyone before," Rock told the unusual individual.
"How could I deny my own self. And yes, they fire, or did the last time I fired them," he replied.
"Ok, if he pulls out a fucking Borchardt I am going to die of laughter. How have you survived," if Ethan had been morose earlier, he was in a fine mood at this point.
"I would not use something so old and crude," and he pulled out a Mauser.
"You have to be kidding, that is a fucking Schnellfeuer. I, it, it isn't much better. Are you actively trying to die? I don't, Rock he can't be serious. Someone has to be protecting his ass," Ethan was definitely in a much better mood at this point.
"Hey, Twinky, you see Lotton, he supposed be here," they turned their heads as they noticed a woman talking to Revy.
"Revy is about to kill her, isn't she," Ethan asked.
"Just watch, this is going to blow you away," Rock told him.
"I think he his over there with Ethan and Rock. Hey Chinglish, what is that smell," the lack of gunfire amazed Ethan.
"Sawyer gave me new perfume, I forget she no have sense of smell. Put some on, no luck getting rid of smell. Boss Chang won't let me in office till gone. Should know better, but too nice for own good," the woman replied as she headed over to them.
"Did we leave the real Revy back in Dallas," he asked Rock.
"She is one of the few people in this place that Revy will voluntarily work with. I don't ask, I know when to leave well enough alone," he replied.
"Hey Lotton, why eye black? Pick fight, not shoot again," the woman's grammar wasn't great, but then again, neither was his German grammar, so he couldn't say much about someone not speaking something other than their native language well.
"Some people took offense to my choice of seating. When I tried to warn them off they took offense to my face, and acted upon it. However they seemed to have some unknown knowledge of my new, and quite rude, acquaintance here. I haven't gotten your name," the odd man mentioned.
"Oh, sorry. Ethan Haines, ship's mechanic of Lagoon Company. I take it from your stance, you are probably what keeps him alive in this city," Ethan introduced himself.
"Oooh, not just handsome, have something in brain. Lotton, can learn something from this one. Sawyer be here soon, ready to go when she get here," she turned to Lotton.
"Yes. Oh, I believe the gentlemen that didn't like me came back with others," the statement made them turn to the door.
"I swear I saw the Rougarou, he is here, his isn't dead, we don't need to rile him up. He cheats fucking death," the man from earlier was trying to convince the new man not to come in.
"Rougarou, I don't think I've used that moniker since I was in, oh fuck. Bao is going to take a power drill to my forehead on this one. Fucking Serbs, this is going to be a shit show. You two may want to go behind the bar. HEY BAO, I AM REALLY SORRY FOR WHAT IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN," he yelled to the bar tender as Rock at least listened to what he said.
"I hadn't planned to travel this soon yet. I apologize Senora. I will have to change some plans, and I will have to send someone ahead. I understand, why you are hesitant for me to send her, but I have no one else that would be capable to make sure the arraingments are complete before I arrive. I have told her that we will do our best to maintain the peace, and not have a repeat of the last instances of our precense in your city. This will be the first time that we have been there fully of our own accorrd, so we should have no reason to see any conflict. I am also very much aware of the reputation she has among the populace. That alone should be able to prevent, unfortunate situations. Have the others that will be at the meeting been informed of the changes that need to be? Gracias, Senora. I hope that our meeting will be profitable for both of us," the young man put the reciever of the phone down.
A young maid stood next to him, "Master Garcia, do you truly think it wise to expose her to that, place, again? Especially so soon. It has only been a little over a year since everything that happened to her. Not to mention that she will be going there alone again."
"Please Fabiola, I have considered this. Unfortunately, as I said I have no one else available to send. I am worried as well, and I am hoping that Senor Rock will able to keep her out of trouble. I told her that I will be very disappointed if she causes trouble on this trip. I will let her know in," he was interrupted by the entrance of another maid, older than the girl he was talking to.
"Young Master, I brought you tea. Is something the matter? You look like you were in a deep discussion about something," she said politely, and kindly.
"Ah yes, I was going to inform you in the morning. There has been a change in plans, and I will need you to leave in the next couple of days to finish the arraignments. I am sorry I must let you know on such short notice, but I only just learned myself," he said.
"I will do my best Young Master," she replied.
"I know you will Roberta, please just promise me you will not cause any trouble."