A Hunter's Blood: The Crimson Contracts
18

Drakx was sweating. He was breathing heavy, and his muscles were assaulted by lactic acid. He was able to move on his own two months ago. As soon as he became self-mobile, Kimi began working him on his road to recovery. He was very weak from being confined to the bed for so long, so starting off was difficult. For these last two months, Kimi hadn’t slowed his feverish pace. As he grew stronger, she gradually increased the intensity.

“If you are not challenged, you are not improving,” was what she kept telling him when he complained. She became his slave driver. He cursed her under his breath many times, but he knew she wanted him back, and better than he was quickly. He just didn’t know why. He thought she was preparing him for Braniff, but that was the last thing on her mind. She eliminated any outside influences for him, so he was only focused on recovery, and training. He had no way of getting his sinister message from the DNAccidents to come get them. Kimi didn’t tell him either. She figured if he went off after them when he was in his present state, it would be a short fight. She knew that bravery would mask rationality for him, so she controlled his knowledge of current events. When she would tell him, he would be ready.

Drakx kept working out. As difficult as it was, he wanted to show her he could beat his fatigue.

Kimi walked in the exercise area holding a drink. Drakx was running in a container of a thick, clear liquid. They called it Friction Gel. When it heated up, it would become thicker. It helped you with your stamina. Drakx had churned it into the thickness of wet cement, and he still had eight kilometers to run. He was very tired.

“Here,” Kimi started, “Drink this.”

“I’m...not...done yet,” he managed to force out through heavy breaths.

“If you do not drink this, you will not finish,” she scolded. “At the rate you are running, you have about two kilometers before you burnout. Now you, do not oppose me on this, drink it.”

He didn’t want to argue. He remembered telling her the same thing with that cannon. He didn’t want to be on the other side of that comment, but it happened. He stopped running, and stepped out to get his drink. He was always amazed at the friction gel. As much as you were immersed in it, when you stepped out, the only way you were wet was your sweat. She handed it to him, and he began to drink. As he drank, his eyes got wide as he spit the liquid back into the container. He began to cough as he asked her in shocking surprise.

“What the hell is this spicy shit?!” he Yelled through the coughs.

“Oh, stop being a baby,” she said with a bit of irritation at him. “It is water, vitamin B-12, and Cyan pepper. Instant energy. I will not give you that packaged drivel. This is all organic. Now cut the diva act and drink!”

Drakx was a little irked at her attitude. He downed the drink in one swallow. He stared at Kimi with a bit of animosity. She stared back at him as if she was waiting for something. He quickly found out what she was waiting for.

He began to cough uncontrollably. He bent over, trying to catch his breath. Kimi cracked a smile.

As she walked over to pick up the container, she said, “You were not supposed to chug that energy drink. Cyan pepper makes you cough like a sick idiot if you do, but I believe you have found that out. It will pass soon. When it does, get back to work.”

“You’re wrong,” Drakx told her through the fit. “You need Jesus!”

Kimi kept a large grin on her face, patted his back, and said, “Yes, we all need him. Now get back to work.”

She walked out of the room with the container that housed her ‘Drink of Lava’, and left him to his task. As he bent over, he couldn’t help cracking a smile as he said to himself,” Okay, I’ll stop being a hardass, and lighten up a little. I’ll live longer.” Then he picked himself up, and with a new energy he returned to the friction gel. He began running again without the feeling of falling out anymore.

I guess that spicy shit works, he thought as he started pushing harder to complete the workout.

He was very grateful for the recuperative properties of the drink within those coming months. Kimi kept pushing him to his peak. He thought he would’ve gotten worn, but his body was getting stronger. He had reached a point when he was better than he had ever been. Lean, fit, and a body as hard as steel.

Kimi was monitoring him closely, and thought it was almost time to let him know the recent activity of the DNAccidents. She was almost satisfied with her sculpture. She just had to polish it to a blinding shine.

During the time of his “sculpting’, Drakx asked her a few questions. She thought it was just idle conversation. Her past, what she liked to do, how her job with The Solution was. She thought he was trying to pass the time. She also thought he was interrogating her, to replace out if she was compatible with him. So when he asked about her job, she let her intangible crush take over her analytical thought process. She knew she shouldn’t have, but she allowed it to take over anyway. Admiration had clouded her judgment.

Drakx had another plan. He wanted to replace out how to replace Braniff. He knew she wouldn’t let him know anything, until she believed he was ready. He felt he was ready weeks earlier. He thought she was just being overcautious. He wanted to know Braniff’s whereabouts before she changed her mind about telling him. He thought she was going to deem it unnecessary at the last minute. He thought she was getting tired of saving his life constantly, but this time, he wanted to prove her wrong. He also was getting tired of her saving his life constantly. He had to prove one more thing. He didn’t need a babysitter to aid him in doing something in which he was considered a professional.

In a roundabout way, he found out when he ate his Calamari, and where. He thought he was going to have a tougher time prying the information from her. Granted, it took weeks, but he was trying to secretly squeeze information from one of the most intelligent beings in the systems. He chalked it up to him being clever. He didn’t know the culprit that gave him the advantage was her intangible nemesis, admiration.

He knew when she slept, he had to get to Braniff. He had a plan worked out to confront him. He knew he couldn’t just kill him. He was too big of a personality. It would’ve been an illegal Erad anyway. If Braniff’s bodyguards didn’t kill him, his supervisor, and an army of Hunters would have. He actually had to think of the best way. He started to understand the man with the biggest gun wasn’t always the way to come out victoriously. He had thought his ‘gun’ was always bigger anyway, but it wasn’t the answer this time. He had to talk to him. Veracious, consequential conversation was better than a bigger gun in this instance. This time, he had to be good with his tongue.

Kimi knew what he was trying to do. As clever as he thought he was, he was trying to fool the most ingenious mind in the systems. She gave him his information to placate him for a few more weeks. When she told him what was really happening with the DNAccidents, Braniff would be the last thing on his mind. Besides, he wasn’t going anywhere anyway.

Drakx had one thing that she didn’t anticipate. He drove his determination with irrationality. Kimi’s analytical deduction was that he would never put himself in danger by going to rectify a volatile situation until he was ready for it. He should’ve, rationally, been recovering for at least two more weeks, so she had no problem with giving him Braniff’s whereabouts. His other matters would be more pressing very soon.

This would’ve been where experience kicked in for a normal human. She believed that if it was obvious to work a problem analytically. No one with any deductive reasoning would execute a dangerous task unprepared. It made no sense. She thought everyone with a rational thought process thought as she. You didn’t have to have a super brain to have common sense.

Unfortunately, feeling plays a large part in a human’s thought process. The one thing she didn’t understand quite yet. Feeling can drive one to irrationality. The way you feel can drive you into a deadly situation, and you will walk into it with blinders on. Drakx was, very much so, human in this aspect. With this being his brother’s last request, he was going to march into it with no fear. He was going to prove his dedication for fulfilling that task that very night.

It was the day before Braniff had his outing. Drakx knew Kimi wouldn’t let him go as far as the door, so he had to slip away. During the early morning, as Kimi slept, he slipped away into the dark. When he was free of the confines of the facility, he made his way to the ground level of the city. It was dark, and eerie, with a surrealistic foreboding of certain doom without survival skills that most top worlders didn’t possess. He knew he would have to travel in obscurity to move free enough to get to him in time. With going through Top Worlder security checkpoints would’ve wasted enough of his time for him to miss his window. He also knew this was his only shot to get to him. When Kimi awakened to replace him gone, she would heighten security to keep him monitored at all times. She was already going to be pissed at him when he returned. He wanted to, at least, accomplish his goal. If he did that, he felt he could withstand her spitting hellfire at him.

It took him the entire day to make it to the more elegant part of the city. Having to go through the under-city wasn’t the way most people who valued their lives would go, but he had no choice. He knew Kimi knew where he went. He hoped she wouldn’t try to come save him again. He was hoping she was too rational to attempt such a stupid stunt. Then he remembered the last time she saved him. Coming back for him against a trained killer wasn’t rational then. So he kept telling himself she wouldn’t be that stupid again. He just didn’t believe it.

As the evening reached its peak, Drakx had made it to the restaurant. This was when he was going to replace out if his intelligence was right. He entered the restaurant. He walked to the hostess, and flashed his badge.

“I’m on official business, I need to locate Mister Cercian,” he said with an authority that should’ve had the hostess complying with his request.

“Mister Cercian sees no one while he dines,” she surprised him with her rejection of ‘authority’. “You will wait here until Mister Cercian has finished his meal.”

Drakx didn’t want to cause any arguments, and get loud. Since he was in his sweats, his authority was crippled. He would lose his element of surprise. He knew his bodyguards would have orders to kill him. He also knew Braniff had enough power to make his murder ‘not exist’ in a crowded restaurant. He had to get to him quick enough to take them all by surprise. He had to replace out a way to get past the hostess, without incident.

That’s when he had an epiphany. He had been around Kimi for months, and the problem solving skill he lacked earlier was developing rather well. He had to be much smarter than he had been before. Solving everything with a gun did not apply here. The main reason that wasn’t a fallback was he wasn’t wearing his trench. With no trench, he had no gun. He had to think his way through this one. He had to complete this per his brother’s request. He just had to replace out how.

Then it came to him. He had to play on the hostess’ weakness. Since he didn’t know this woman at all, he had to think in generalizations. What should’ve been a human, young, hostess’ weakness. Losing her job; being blacklisted so she couldn’t replace another job until she was retrained in another profession. Not having the money to retrain, and ultimately, becoming one of the nameless poor that barely survived in the under-city.

That was a weakness he could exploit.

He looked at her very seriously. He leaned in, and in a low, semi-desperate tone, he said to her, “Mister Cercian is wanted for questioning about leading the largest pedophile group ever on record. A Check the World info crew chomping at the bit to get in here, and expose him, live. I told them I would escort him out of this establishment without incident. If any disturbance is detected, they will come storming in causing all types of mayhem just to get this story. I have held them back by telling them I would be out with him in fifteen minutes. If that doesn’t happen, you, and your restaurant, will be over every info-screen in the systems, being connected with this millennium’s worst child rapist. Now if you don’t want that to happen, I suggest you don’t alert him to my presence, and tell me his location. This will happen without a media incident if you co-operate. Now that you’ve been enlightened, I ask again, where is Mister Cercian?”

The hostess went quiet staring into Drakx’ eyes. He stared back at her, and stayed silent. He knew the old saying from a negotiator. “He who speaks first, loses.” He kept the same look. He didn’t want to change his expression, and let his face ‘talk’ first.

It took about thirty seconds for the hostess to lose. It was the longest thirty seconds Drakx had ever been through. She became uncomfortable with the silence. She knew Mister Cercian had an order not to be disturbed, but knowing she would be fired, and blacklisted for allowing a media circus destroy the place she worked was a bit more important than an angry child rapist.

“He’s at table twelve,” she started, “Get him out of here quietly, and don’t disrupt any of our other patrons.”

Drakx let out a mental sigh of relief. She bought it. His bluff worked. He was free to compete his mission. He wanted to yell out at her, “I can’t believe you fell for that!” but he kept his role of seriousness.

“I will execute this App. without anyone knowing. The Hunters Guild thanks you,” he said with a bit of patriotic comfort.

“Just do it quickly, and quietly. Then, please get the hell out of here,” she answered him with impatience.

Drakx quietly turned toward the dining area, and began to walk to table twelve. He began to think his problem solving skills were getting better.

He was surprised Braniff didn’t eat in a private room. Then he saw this place didn’t have any rooms at all. He thought that if Braniff would stoop low enough to eat with the commoners, this Calamari must be enchanting.

He saw Braniff in the back corner of the dining area. His bodyguards were stationed around him. He was enjoying his meal with oblivion. He didn’t look up at all. He was lost in his meal. Drakx began to walk to the table, and realized no one was dining near him. He thought the bodyguards set a ‘scare’ force field perimeter. He began to walk past that barrier fearlessly. As he got about a meter from the bodyguards, two of them closed in together, blocking his path, and sight of Braniff. These men were large.

“Walk away,” a bodyguard ordered Drakx sharply.

“You have no business here,” another bodyguard said to repel him.

Braniff didn’t even look up at this. He paid his bodyguards well so he didn’t have to. He just kept enjoying his meal.

Drakx wasn’t going to let his guards hinder him. He kept walking to the table.

“I believe Mister Cercian will replace what I have to say of some importance to him,” Drakx said without waiver to the guards.

Drakx was stopped quickly with a strong, iron punch to his midsection. That force field was strong. As he bent over in pain, the guards grabbed his arms, and began to escort him out the back. They were finally excited that they were going to actually do their job. Most people knew not to cross Braniff, because his bodyguards would decimate you. Most people heeded that warning so his bodyguards were getting a little bored. Now that they were about to do the best part of their job, they were almost giddy. Braniff looked up to see who dared to screw with his guards. It was someone he didn’t know in sweat pants, so he didn’t matter. Braniff thought of him as a meaty bone thrown to a pack of hungry wolves.

Drakx knew this was the only chance he had to talk to Braniff. He knew if he would be thrown out, he would fail. Not having a gun reduced him to using his mind again. He had to break that damned force field.

“Braniff, I have a problem!” he yelled past the guards, “I need a solution! I was told to talk to you!”

“You never call Mister Cercian by his first name!” a guard scolded him. “Boy, I’m gonna enjoy kickin’ yer ass!”

Braniff stopped chewing his food. He couldn’t believe someone who knew who he was would even dare mention it in public. He had to know who this sweat panted gentleman was. He swallowed what was in his mouth, and said,

“Bring him back.”

Force field broken.

The guard was surprised at Braniff’s request. He grabbed Drakx by the nape of his neck, and drug him back to Braniff’s table. He picked him up, and rather gruffly pushed him in a seat he placed across from Braniff.

Drakx looked at the large bodyguard, and said, “Touch me again, and I’ll beat you to death with this squid.”

The bodyguard looked at Drakx with surprised disbelief. He grabbed Drakx by the neck, and cocked his fist back. He aimed it at Drakx’ nose, and glanced at Braniff’s disproving glare. He knew he would need permission to cause Drakx any form of bodily harm. He pleaded more than asked.

“Sir, please let me kill him! It won’t take long, and I will make sure he will, never again, bother your meal,” the guard tried to negotiate.

“Back off Drake,” Braniff said quietly. “This gentleman, and I have business. If it’s not important, maybe you’ll get your wish.”

“Oh, I believe you will replace this one of the most important decisions you will make,” Drakx said with assurance in his voice. He looked up at Drake with a bit of arrogance, and told him, “You heard the man, back off, now. You won’t piss blood later tonight.”

Drake knew he had to obey his employer. He hated it, but Braniff paid him well to have restraint. He released Drakx, and lowered his arm. He caught his erratic breathing, and controlled his calm.

“Go make sure we are alone, Drake,” Braniff ordered him away from the table.

Drakx watched an upset Drake turn, and walk away from the table to join the rest of the guards. Now he was finally alone with Braniff. It was time to get serious.

“I know you didn’t come here alone without any back-up. Not knowing the information you do. So, since no one is that stupid, you want something. What is your request?” Braniff started the conversation with directness.

This was it. Drakx had played this over in his mind thousands of times. He hoped Braniff would stick to his mental script. “I request for you to forget our existence.”

“Sir, I don’t know of your existence now. I don’t know you, or who you are with. Now, before you become unimportant to me, who are you?” He was becoming impatient, but still kept composure.

“I’m Drakx. A decorated bounty hunter, but that isn’t important to you. My full name is Drakx... Slazakohn,” Drakx unveiled.

Braniff gave Drakx a deadpan stare. He didn’t look surprised, or shocked. Drakx began to think Teryn never told Braniff his real name. Braniff should’ve been surprised, at least. He just sat there staring at Drakx with no emotion. He wasn’t following the script! Drakx became uneasy, but showed no waiver. He began to curse the whole thinking aspect of solving problems. He was wishing he had a gun when Braniff spoke.

“Your brother is a very meticulous man. He is also very loyal. I don’t see him anywhere. Since you are sitting here instead of him, I suspect he isn’t breathing anymore.” He stayed calm. “You have become important to me. By the way, how is my former secretary?”

Drakx was silently grateful Braniff got back to the script. He improvised a little, but he was back.

“She is paranoid,” Drakx said. “So paranoid, she told me everything about you. You’re an evil man.”

“So, you know of me. Am I supposed to be frightened?” Braniff stayed deadpan.

“Oh, she also downloaded all of that revealing information to my essence chip. If I die, accidental, or otherwise, my chip gets downloaded directly to The Hunter’s Guild. It helps with the investigation of my death. Great perk of law enforcement, don’t you think?” he asked.

Braniff finally showed some emotion. He became uneasy. Before, he thought he was in control. Now, he knew someone else had a gun to his head with the hammer cocked. He began to hope the trigger finger didn’t have an itch. “What do you really want? Money, fame, what else?”

Drakx knew his bluff worked. He had Braniff by the short hairs, and his mission was almost complete. He did have one more request.

“My brother was a war hero,” he started. “He died like a warrior. They jettisoned him to The Void Belt. He doesn’t deserve that. Retrieve his body, and give him a proper burial.”

“You are very lucky you know me. You killed my best hitter, have the ‘thorn in my side’ still living, and pissed off my best bodyguard,” Braniff said, still wondering why he didn’t blackmail him for any money. He thought he would get off free and clear, if he didn’t push the issue. Leave him, and the brainy bitch alone, and bury his brother? He could do that with ease. He knew they wouldn’t be stupid enough to say anything. No one would believe them anyway. Only their death would be the evidence to destroy him. Burying his brother was something he would’ve wanted to do in the first place. Teryn was a faithful servant, and did deserve more.

“How do you expect me to replace Teryn up there? There must be at least two million anonymous bodies up there,” he just realized.

“Well, I guess you’re going to have to give them all a proper burial,” Drakx said to him.

Braniff finally looked amazed. Drakx knew it would take a chunk out of his fortune. Karma works relentlessly.

“Now, I know you have to soak up this conversation, so, I’ll just let you finish your meal.”

Drakx got up from his seat. “I’ll leave you alone, as long as you do the same. You will do the same, right?”

Braniff was still flustered. He knew it would be expensive to keep his anonymity. He had to accept it. So he agreed.

“I don’t know you anymore. I won’t acknowledge anyone you know. Now, get the fuck out of here. I have an old friend to bury,” Braniff let Drakx know their business was complete.

Drakx was smart enough to know the situation was too delicate to disturb. He nodded to Braniff, and turned to walk out of the establishment. His mission was completed. He knew then his brother would be at peace.

As he walked to the exit, the hostess interrupted his thought by asking, “What’s the problem, Sir? Is the info-crew coming to disrupt my restaurant? Why haven’t you apprehended him?”

Drakx had forgotten the lie he told her to get past her. He didn’t break stride, and said to her, “Oh, sorry. My mistake. Wrong guy.”

The hostess began to fume. She repeated his answer in a disbelieving question back to him. “Wrong guy?! You interrupted our best client’s dinner, and now you’re saying wrong guy?!”

Drakx walked by her with his palms facing up, and his shoulders hunched. He had a ‘What can I do’ look on his face. He kept walking out the exit as he felt her cursing him silently.

He got back to the secret location early the next morning. He walked the entire distance, and realized he hadn’t eaten in two days. He was happy about last evening’s events. As satisfied as he was about the Braniff situation, he knew he had to deal with Kimi. He thought she would be happy he settled her hit contract. She also should’ve been happy he did it without bullets. When he opened the door to the complex, he was fairly confident Kimi would listen, understand, and forgive him.

“Tell me you were not idiotic enough to replace Braniff!” Kimi screamed at him the second she saw him.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m just a little hungry. I’m going to fix some breakfast. How do you want your eggs?” he asked her, trying to avoid the whirlwind that was about to come.

He walked into the kitchen while Kimi followed behind him closely, and didn’t slow her fury.

“Do not walk away from me! You went to see Braniff! At least you could not replace him. You are lucky your directions are inadequate! I hate to think what would have happened if you two actually met!”

Drakx turned to correct her. “Just to update your flawed intelligence, we did meet! Why are you doubting my navigation skills?”

“If you met him, you should be dead! He wipes people like you from existence! I doubted your skills, because you are still here breathing!” she was still screaming, but she was relieved he was there to scream at.

“Well, don’t doubt me anymore about anything,” he told her. “You don’t have to worry about him anymore.”

Kimi wasn’t believing him. “Braniff wants me dead. He is not one to just give that up.”

“Trust me. He wants us both as alive as we can be for a long time. I made sure of that,” he said with a smug look on his face.

Kimi was confused. She had to know, so she asked. “How did you accomplish this?”

“I told him you downloaded all you know about him to my essence chip, and if we die, his information will show up at The Hunter’s Guild,” he had a smile on his face for being so resourceful.

“So, you lied?” Kimi asked, thinking if that worked, humans were dimmer than she thought.

“It won’t be a lie when you download your memories to my chip,” he corrected her. “You wouldn’t think it would be necessary, so I made a legitimate reason for what you wouldn’t do.”

“Well, I am just glad you did not get killed,” Kimi said with a sigh of relief.

Drakx felt a bit of compassion from her. He remembered what his brother said about her being good for him. Then he was slapped in the face by a dose of full frontal fact.

She wouldn’t be this pissed if she didn’t care about me, he thought. Teryn might have been right about her.

He was riding high on himself. He was so high, Kimi couldn’t help but to get drenched in smugness. She saw his head began to grow too large for the room, and she felt she had to save them both before it was too big. She took out the perfectly sharpened needle to pop it.

“You can handle anything, right?” she interrupted his self-basking.” You are feeling unstoppable?”

With a smile of assurance, he looked across at her, and said, “I’m ready.”

“If you are so ready, reference info-snips Theta eight one two alpha through beta nine,” She told him, and realized how devastating it would be for him. “I apologize for what I have kept from you, however, you had to be ready before you knew.”

Drakx was confused this time. He wondered what it was she so covertly hid from him. “What is this?”

“Just reference the info-snips,” she answered him as she walked away from him. “I will be in my room. Come see me after, if you want.”

Kimi had changed her mood very quickly in just a few minutes. She hadn’t done that in front of Drakx before. He was happy she was working on making her emotions more natural, but concerned at what emotions she was using. He knew from just that observation these snips were not going to be good. He walked to the info-screen as she walked into her room, and closed her door. He accessed the files she said, and his jaw fell open.

He saw the destruction around the city. He saw a DNAccident in every story. The constant, repeating request he had suppressed chimed loudly in his head once more like an alarm clock you integrate in your dream, until your body knows it’s time to get up, and startles you violently to consciousness. The shock almost hurt, it was so startling. Then he became angry. They were destroying the city he grew up in, and killing its residents. Destroying his city! His fellow residents! All to call him out. That was wrong, even for them!

Their sinister plan worked. Drakx wanted to answer their call badly. He saw the date of the first clip, and became angrier. It was three months ago. They had been at it for a while. He wished Kimi didn’t hide this from him. If he knew about it when it first started, he would’ve ran to combat them. All those people would’ve been saved. And he would’ve died in the process.

He knew why she did what she did. He would’ve let his anger usher him to his death, and they would be free to do whatever they wanted. He was pissed, but he understood.

He flipped off the screen. He couldn’t watch anymore. They had destroyed memorable parts of the city, and killed many people. He was angry enough to be motivated to obey his mental command. He finally understood fully what it meant. He felt ready.

He walked to Kimi’s room, and opened the door. She was sitting in a chair, facing the window. The morning sun bathed her in warmth, but she didn’t seem to care at all. She just sat, despondently quiet. Drakx leaned in her doorway. He paused for a second, and took a large breath, and began.

“I forgive you for not telling me sooner. I know why you did it, and I believe you are punishing yourself right now enough. Just remember, you didn’t kill anyone. They did. I also believe you want to stop them before they cause another accident. Well, you’ve built me back better than I was. I Eradded them before. I am just itching to drop those fuckers in the ground again. You ready?”

Kimi looked at him in disbelief. He didn’t blow a fuse for her keeping him in the dark. Maybe he was getting more mature. She acknowledged him by nodding.

“Good,” he said to her. “Let’s go fix some fucking accidents!”