A Hunter's Blood: The Crimson Contracts
11

Drakx sat in pain. His leg was bleeding, and on fire. As they sped to a safer location. He tried to evaluate the last twenty minutes. He was killed, re-animated. Brought back, surrounded by a group whose main priority was to replace new, and exciting ways to kill him again. Finding a way to incapacitate the alpha male of the group, which was rather satisfying. Being chased, blasted through a closed doorway, marked for death, and saved by a very strange woman, damn.

“Who the hell are you anyway?” he asked his mysterious, new companion. “Why were you in the Industrial Zone?”

“I am Kimi. I saved you, you are welcome,” she began, “You answer my questions. Who are you, who were they, and where are we going?”

He wasn’t in the mood to argue. She had a right to ask as well as he did. Although, he didn’t interfere in her life, then he realized she interfered in his death.

“Drakx Slazakohn, a bounty hunter. They were a contract that went bad. We’re going to a safe facility,” he recited decisively. Then he said, “Your turn.”

She was quiet for a second. He thought she was catching up to the weight of what just happened. He was half right.

“Was that all of the DNAccidents?” she asked timidly.

“How do you even know the name DNAccident? Who are you?!” Drakx answered her with the questions that intruded his mind to become prime.

Kimi turned to him sharply, and interrupted his line of questioning. “Was that all of them?!”

Drakx wasn’t going to just answer someone he didn’t know. Even if she did save his life. She was stepping past his comfort level with her.

“Who are you?! How do you know classified information? I was giving you my situation because you saved my life, and thank you by the way! But I don’t know you, so I have no reason to tell you anything else! Now as I said before, Kimi, your turn!”

Kimi turned, and looked at the road. She was being stubbornly quiet. She didn’t look at him purposely while he peered at her, waiting for her to answer. As they drove. The only sound, was a jazz song that quietly played from his personal satellite registry.

Drakx became slightly winded after exploding at Kimi. He was still bleeding from the hole in his leg. He knew that he had to use the car’s aid safety station to repair his leg. His back was still tingling from the electrical blast Sensus so maliciously delivered to it. His funny bones on each elbow felt as if he was being poked constantly by pointed steel rods. He came to the conclusion that he needed a long shower and a deep massage.

“I was not born. I was created by Sonext,” Kimi broke his wondering thought, and brought him back to his first query of her. “They labeled me DNAccomplishment. That is why I know them by that name. Now I must know, was that all of them?”

Drakx was dumbfounded at this new information. He definitely had more questions for this stranger that was previously deducted as a woman. He thought he should answer first so they wouldn’t clash again.

“Yes, that was all of them,” he answered, and without missing a beat, he asked, “This was an American experiment. Sonext shouldn’t have even known...”

“Well they knew it all,” Kimi cut him off. “They had silent surveillance on the project. Sonext has their own ideas, but you know that if they do not have the original idea, they pirate it, and improve upon it.”

She was right in that aspect of Sonext. That was why they were the biggest company in this system. They make, and sell everything.

“I have never gone against all of them, let alone one. I have been told that they were my origin, but I am the superior Japanese finished work,” Kimi said proudly.

Drakx still had an unfinished question for her. He wanted to take care of himself first. He touched the dashboard, and activated the aid safety station. An infra-red light scanned his body, and settled on his damaged leg. A metallic ring wrapped above his thigh that came from the light. Nanites came from the ring, and began to repair the leg.

As the pain began to subside, he asked her the question once more. “Since you’re a Sonext product with humanistic physiology, how did you end up in the Industrial Zone, a no humans allowed area?”

She hesitated for a second. Then with a big sigh, she answered. “I am hiding from the Solution.”

Drakx knew who they were. The Solution was the organized crime syndicate that “didn’t exist”. To Erad or App a member from the Solution was every Hunter’s dream. Drakx’ supervisor was the only Hunter ever rumored to complete the task. That was why she was the supervisor.

“I was bought by them to be their memory keeper,” she continued. “Being able to use seventy five percent of my brain simultaneously was appealing to them. I was the answer to their paper, and digi-bank trails. Without them, they had no evidence to help convict anyone. I stored it all. Illegal trades, money laundering, executions, everything.”

She was becoming more interesting by the second. When he asked her the question, he didn’t expect how deep, and dark the answer would become. He understood that she was a fugitive for the other side. He knew if she was doing something as dangerous as hiding in the Industrial Zone, she was a problem for them. They had a good reason for their strange name. The Solution always fixed their problems. It was a slogan everyone knew, and no one said.

“Why were you crazy enough to leave them?” he asked her. “You know there’s only one way out.”

“I was bought by them, I had no say in the matter,” she explained. “Sonext created me with the modified three robot rules for a humanoid. Obedience, morals, and a value for human life. I was thrust in an environment that was devoid of all of that. They did not care how I felt about anything when they filled me with all of their illegal records. I was trapped with the dirtiest secrets that I did not want. I was just a memory block to them. My soul was poisoned with their evil acts. I had to leave. If that meant my life, I did not care. I could not live with the darkness anymore anyway.”

Then why was she hiding, if she couldn’t live with everything she knew?

She began to answer his thought as if she read it. “Unfortunately, Sonext imprinted a survival will, and drive mechanism in me. I will not allow myself to just die. I have been on the run with this evil swimming inside me for a while. Does that answer your question?”

Drakx was taking this new information in. He almost ignored her question. “What? Oh, yes you’ve outdone yourself.”

“Not quite,” she responded apprehensively. “There is one other bit of information you need to know.”

Drakx wanted her to tell him what he was missing.

“They have sent their rectifier after me. He will not stop until I, and anyone who knows me is dead. I am sorry for bringing you into this, but welcome to the fire, Mister Frying Pan.”

Drakx knew of this mythical hitter. He never left evidence, or anyone alive. He was one of the Hunter’s most wanted. Even being near his level of interest was like winning the lottery. Drakx wasn’t shocked by fright, amazement took over.

“The Rectifier is hitting you? How long have you been evading him?” Drakx asked.

I have survived for a week,” she started with a weak pride.

A week was old age when he was after you. Most people don’t last three hours when he was sent to get you. Drakx knew his reputation also.

“You are on borrowed time,” he said.

“Correction Drakx,” Kimi interrupted, “We are on borrowed time.”

Drakx was excited to get a chance to Erad their mythical hitter. He willfully ignored the danger they were in.

“You should be scared, I defiantly am,” she warned him ominously.

“They’ve fixed my leg. I can fight again,” he told her, still in great pain, as the nanites sterilized the freshly repaired leg. The station began to track down to his sprained ankle. He terminated the repair, believing they didn’t have any time. “Don’t worry Kimi. I’ve been trained for this. I’ll return the favor, and protect your life no matter what the cost.”

Your chivalry is appreciated, but I analyze facts, not hope,” she responded with a grave heavy feeling. “Thank you anyway.”

Drakx’s mind intruded his thinking once more. Bring them back. Restore balance.

All of a sudden, his new challenge was dwarfed. He still had to bring back the DNAccidents. He was urged to restore some form of balance. He kept wondering where this relentless drive came from. He just knew he was compelled to do it. Nothing else mattered.

“I suppose you want this back,” Kimi chimed in.

Drakx looked at her. She was giving back the Mega Photon Cannon. “Yeah, drop it back in the coat.”

She placed it back in the lining, still amazed that something that large fit with no weight or mass.

“If you had that rocket launcher with you, why did you not just turn around and lay waste to the DNAccidents?” she asked from curiosity.

“I was thrust in a situation where I had no time to think. I was being chased. Since I wasn’t hunting them, I ran for survival. Chasing them back didn’t occur to me at the time,” he answered, giving an excuse for his mental slowness, and hoping she didn’t share the empath thing Sensus did.

“Well, just do not think about us being ‘chased’ when The Rectifier replaces us,” she mocked. “At least shoot at him. You might confuse him a second before he kills us.”

“Don’t worry,” he responded to her insulting tone with a deep proclivity. “I have this under control.”

As he finished the last syllable of his last word, a large green flash of light encompassed the car. The electrical systems flickered, and went dead. This caused the mechanics to lock, including the breaks. The emergency restraint system gravitationally secured them in their seats as the car skidded to a stop.

Someone just hit us with a pre- nuke static blast! Drakx thought. This must be it! Gotta release this damned seat!

The passenger side window shattered across his face, and lap, releasing the gravity restraint. A powerful arm reached in, and grabbed him by his shirt, and coat in his chest area. It pulled him out of the seat, and through the window. He ended up half out of the window, looking at a face he hadn’t seen in twenty five years. It was an impossible face. The owner of this face died tragically in the Tralodian War. He shouldn’t exist here.

The person spoke to the frozen Drakx. In a deadly, cold tone, the person said, “I never expected to see you in this capacity...never this way... BROTHER!”