On
a cloudy night, in a City wooded park, rain imminent, someone, heavily
dressed for disguise, entered furtively, and took up a
position.
Another
person entered furtively from a different direction, looked about,
saw the other, and cautiously approached them. They
showed each other identification.
-Why
are we here?
To
kill a traitor.
-And?
A
decorated soldier traitor.
-Correct
responses. Do you have the information?
Yes.
It can be done tomorrow night. I know where he will be for an hour,
at least.
-We
might have a problem.
What?
-Have
you come here alone?
What?
I’m stupid?
-I
ask because we are in trouble if what I have detected is not with
you.
To
my right?
-Uh-huh.
Idiot’s
with me. I am stupid.
-Perhaps
he has a plan?
She.
Not supposed to have a plan. She’s fired.
-I’m
not alone.
Where
is the place?
-The
park behind the hospital. You know where that is?
A
few patients in that hospital are family.
-Meet
me there. While the hospital night shift comes on. Be armed.
Always
-Will
he be armed?
Hello?
Dumb question. He is a soldier. Never goes anywhere unarmed in these
wartime days.
-Of
course. Dumb. Sorry. Not enough sleep.
He
comes alone, usually. If someone's with him, we abort. We are hired
to kill only one. He enters, and exits by a back, dark alley. So,
don't suspect me when I lead you into a dark alley.
-His
head comes off?
Yes.
-Are
we allowed to pick his pockets?
You
are. While I am taking off his head, you stand guard. When I have
finished, we go separate ways. I take the head. You can stay to rob
the corpse as much as you please.
-He
deserves it.
Uh-uh.
Do not think like that. We do it for the money only. Right and wrong
are irrelevant.
-Sorry.
On another matter, I was told to ask about another job for us. Two
young women. Could pass for girls. Living together. They sneak out
at night.
Who
told you?
-I
don't know who she is. She said she knows about what you and I do for
a living. She approves. She has work for us. She wants us to tail the
girls. They could just be naughty girls. But these are war times.
It's safer to suspect everybody.
Good
thinking. Suspect everything. Even this person who says she wants to
hire us. When she next contacts you, let me know. I will tail her.
-Okay.
Where
do the girls live?
-A
few days walk outside
the
City.
They
go towards the City?
-No.
Meet
up with anyone?
-Not
yet; but that's because they have always mysteriously disappeared. No
tail has been successful in following them to where they eventually
stop.
Could
they be aware they are being tailed?
-They
do not behave as if they are aware. No one has been able to trace
just when they return. That is why I have been asked to ask you to
help.
Has
the matter of pay been discussed?
-Not
yet.
We
don't need to be chasing girls in these times of war. Make our pay
exorbitant.
-Exactly
what I was thinking. There's something else. Perhaps it's nothing.
But it's happened twice, like it was planned.
Go
on.
-A
red Cat follows them.
Stalking
them to eat them?
-That's
what I thought. But twice it hissed and barred my way. It snarled at
me, like it was warning me.
Their
Cat? Women have a thing for Cats.
-No.
It seems as if they do not know it follows them.
Most
likely women meeting lovers. This war is tempting women to be
reckless in romance. The menfolk in the family are either dead or
gone away for too long.
-Do
we look the other way when it is our women meeting enemy soldiers?
No.
Kill the soldiers.
-The
women?
They
will be long gone before you're finished with their clients. Let our
women go. They are miserable enough in this war.
-Good
enough. Another thing. Again, might be nothing.
Safer
to not think like that in our work.
-A
woman Palace worker rides her horse far to the East.
That's
opposite to where the enemy camps are.
-By
what we know.
Could
be just exercise. Working at the Palace in these times brings extra
stress.
-Could
be.
We
will investigate.
-Will
we be given horses?
I'm
working on it.
-Make
sure they are not captured horses. Enemy soldiers train their horses
to return to camp.
I
do not know the difference between our horses and enemy horses. All
horses look alike to me.
-An
enemy horse has intelligence that's pliable, like wax; and so it's
easier to train. Our horses are wooden in intelligence; stubborn;
hard to teach.
I
don't understand. Why do we even bother with having horses like ours?
-Our
horses are better war horses because our horses, by nature, love to
eat human meat. Our horses on the battlefield, kill more enemy
soldiers than our soldiers kill.
Hence,
then, it can be truly said, inside our horse are enemy soldiers.
Dare
we trust such horses?
-Hence
why the main reason we are going to win this war is because we have
savage carnivore horses.
And
on that happy day I'll eat a horse; a whole enemy horse.
-See
you tomorrow night.
Tomorrow
night. Uh, almost forgot. They said he might arrive by horseback.
That didn't mean anything special to me.
-It
means stay away from his horse’s jaws.
Will
it be possible to tell in the dark what kind of horse his will be?
-He
is one of us, and a senior army soldier. He wouldn't dare ride a
captured enemy horse.
He
would not dare if the war were going well with us. Under the
circumstances, we do not want to risk being attacked by his horse
when we attack him. As I pointed out, to me a horse is a horse. But
you know the difference. Our safety is in your eyes.
-Alright.
If he arrives by horse, stay behind me, until I work it out.
Do
we abort if his horse is carnivore?
-We
will have no choice, although that was not brought up in my orders.
Is
there time for you to ask?
-I
am getting on it right away when I get back within minutes. I do not
know if I will be able to contact anyone who will know. Anyway, we
are already in an abort possibility if he arrives with another
person. See you tomorrow night.
Perhaps
not. That buddy of yours to your right, is signaling.
-Change
of plans. I’m coming with you. Let’s get out of here.
Contact
Ezra (Unless
you
type
the
author's name in
the subject
line
of the message we
won't know where to send it.)
