The war is over - chapter 2

Gus, Lynx, Scully and Reaper found themselves in the countryside just a quarter of hour later, tired of a long battle they’ve had and feeling quite low. Lynx was dreaming of getting back to U.S., imagining his favorite places such as ‘that little cozy nightclub just round the corner of his flat’ or the bar, where he’s spent a lot of wonderful evenings talking to friends over a drink and picking up girls. Shadow was concentrated on the task, but still he couldn’t stop his thoughts going in different directions. As for the Reaper, it seemed he wasn’t tired at all, but this crazy guy looked even more scary than usual with a feverish glance of his eyes. Scully was trying hard not to think bout his friend’s death, but he couldn’t keep his memories from floating his mind.

They both were quite young as they met. Scully has just retired from the army – although he was very successful there, he had found the regular army too boring and hierarchal. Being experienced he's got noticed by two Irish gentlemen, who were living in America and were in search for skilled youngster for their own purposes. Until now Scully didn’t find out who they actually were. The job they’ve offered him was obviously illegal, payment was low at the start, but it was an interesting, unusual and risky job (at least they were promising so) – and that was what Scully was searching for. Also they’ve told him that the salary will rise up if their project had to be successful. So being careless and in certain need of money (he was from a middle-class family, but at that moment living on his own) he took the job. Soon they took him to their base. There were twenty more guys – all of them were well-trained, skillful and very young. Mike was one of those guys – just a young boy with red-brownish hair and very serious eyes. The first thing that Scully noticed about him was that Mike was deeply introverted – while others were telling stories of their life or sharing past fighting experiences, Mike was just laying in bed, with a book in his hand. And his whole appearance empathized the fact that was something special, a lone stander, who preferred to be separated from the others by the invisible wall of scientific texts. Even then he told them nothing about himself except the fact that they could call him ‘Mike’.

They’ve had a lot of missions in different places (they’ve been brought there by a helicopter or a plane) always without knowing anything about it except the map of the sector. And they never asked any questions – that was the condition of the deal.

The day that Scully perfectly remembered was the day when Mike saved his life. They were on a bridge over a mountain river Scully was unlucky to get hit by the enemy’s bullet. Injured, with a stream pushing him Scully thought he was dying. The help came totally unexpected – Mike, being injured himself, caught him and brought him to the riverside holding with one arm. Scully hadn’t even understood what happened. Although Scully didn’t hear squad leader giving an order, he knew perfectly why Mike has done it. Surely this guy had no intentions to help Scully personally, he just followed an order, but still he did save his life. After Mike pulled Scully out, two guys in his squad took him by forearms and got him out from the battle to the spot where they had to wait for a helicopter. Scully was bandaged, but for sometime he remained in a state of shock. He has not been injured anytime before, and just few moments ago he almost faced death. Other members of the squad came later. Mike was still with them, although he was injured. The team leader didn’t tell Scully anything, but that was even worse – he knew he disappointed them, which meant they could get rid of him and he still wanted the job… But the most important thing right now was the fact that he survived and he survived because of Mike. So he approached Mike.
“Hey, you saved me, buddy! I thought, I’ve no chances, you know… Down there in the river – that was scary… Don’t know how you managed to get me out of it. You are a great pro, aren’t you?” Scully was talking in his usual friendly manner, as if he was talking about a soccer game with his old friend, but he was actually serious about the subject.


“Yes.” Was the only answer. Mike was sitting there keeping a piece of bandage on the injury by his right hand. He only gave Scully a short look and kept on looking in a different direction.

“Are you always that talkative?” Asked Scully ironically in a few seconds.
“Yes,” the answer was the same but this time Mike didn’t even turn his head to look at Scully.

“Alright then… Thanks anyway.” Even Scully was confused by the strange behavior of this guy. He preferred to stop this dialog and joined the others. But also he was intrigued by this guy and grateful for what he has done for him.

After a quarter an hour they were taken by the helicopter and it brought them back to the base. They went inside the building and Scully felt like trying again. He caught Mike in the corridor.

“How’s your shoulder, buddy?” Asked he.

“Why?” Was the answer.

“Just wanted to know… You were hurt because of me.” Scully was trying hard to keep the dialog going.

“I wasn’t hurt because of you,” Mike answered almost automatically.

Scully stopped right there with no more strengths to continue on this ‘friendly talk’.
“How much should I pay you for the opportunity to talk to you?”

Mike had frozen and then slowly turned around to face Scully. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ve just offered you money, ‘cause I still want a pleasant talk and it’s seems the only way how I could get what I want.” Scully answered again in the same manner, feeling like playing with fire and thinking that it was too much.

But instead of getting angry Mike kept silence for a while and then laughed. He laughed only for few seconds but it was the first time Scully saw him laughing, before that this guy hadn’t even smiled.
“Funny. Now, what d’ you want?”

Scully smiled too.
“Just to talk as normal people do. You know, they, the normal people, are shaking hands sometimes and walking somewhere to have a chat. Let’s go to the canteen, buddy, and I’ll teach you how to talk.”

After it, in the canteen, they had a dialog or almost a monolog of Scully, who told Mike about his past, about the time he joined the army and even about his family.
“Now, what’s about you? I am talking all the time, it’s your turn.”

Mike looked at Scully with his serious and heavy gaze.
“No need.”

Scully rolled up his eyes.
“C’mon, why? Nah, I’ve promised to teach you how to talk. Now you see – I told you about myself and you have to say something like “oh, and I have been there and there” or “and in my childhood it was like…”. Try it – people enjoy talking, believe me…”

“Stop joking. I perfectly know what people enjoy. Still I have no intentions of talking about my past. That was a decision I made. I won’t give away any information about myself.” Mike was speaking slowly, he seemed to be a very rational guy, even too rational for his age.

“Alright. I see… Don’t know why the hell you need to keep your bio as a secret but it’s up to you to decide… By the way, never heard anybody calling you by the last name, even our bosses are calling you ‘Mike’ – why? That’s a bit weird, you know… And where are you from? I mean what city. Or that is the thing that you don’t want to give away too?”
Scully was talking as serious as he only could.

“I don’t have a last name,” was the answer. “And the city… Alright, I grew up in New York. Do not ask me any other questions - it’s useless.”

Scully felt that it’s truly useless to continue asking questions, although Mike’s phrase about his last name sounded even more mysterious than the fact that nobody knew it. Instead of it Scully tried to use the information given.
“New York is a great place for a teenager, isn’t it?”

“No, it’s not. I’ve told – I don’t want to talk about myself.” Mike was still talking with short phrases.

Scully got the idea and changed the topic to their work. Also he understand that it was some kind of check – Mike told him about New York to find out if Scully shared this information with the others or not. And Scully didn’t. But still he wasn’t sure that Mike told him the truth.

“Let’s have a rest, guys. It’s been a long way…” Gus was tired more than the others, mainly because his leg still hurt after the accident.

This phrase pulled Scully back to the reality from his own thoughts. He felt even distracted by it – such an ordinary phrase from a guy who hated and killed his best friend…
“Aren’t you getting too old for this business?”
Asked Scully angrily.

Gus looked at Scully.
“Hey, what that means?!”

“What you've heard.” The “friendly” guy Scully wasn't so friendly anymore. Or at least not right after his best friend was killed.

“What's gotten into you? Are you looking for a fight?!”

“Shut up you both!” Said Reaper calmly but very aloud, without even turning his head on them.

Scully wasn't in the mood to let it go but he was interrupted by Lynx.
“Shh-h! There is a sound… of an engine. Can you hear it?”

Shadow, who was totally indifferent to the conflict, shook up and nodded.
“There is. Let’s hide in the trees.”

A few moments later two jeeps became visible for them. Those jeeps were following the road and getting closer. In the second car was sitting dark-haired women dressed in the rich clothes.

“That’s her… Finally…” Whispered Gus and then asked Lynx:
“Could you set a target? You have a chance to change the history of this godforsaken country…”

Lynx was already doing so.
“Got it,” Whispered he back and pulled the trigger…

The Queen was dead and her death spread panic through the soldiers, who were there to protect her. Some of them escaped from the battle on the jeep, but soldiers who were in the second car stayed there and kept on fighting with a fanatical agony. For five skillful mercenaries it wasn’t hard to kill four ex-soldiers of Deidrana, but it took them a bit longer in this case to break through the desperation of those troops.

“Now it’s all over. We fucking did it.”
After the battle was over, Lynx was happy to pronounce this fact. Everyone was waiting for this moment for long time. The helicopter had to take them out and bring to Drassen Airport, but they were told to get the jeep there too – a car should be a very useful thing for the ex-rebels. But no one enjoyed the idea to drive the jeep almost through the whole country. Finally Scully decided to do the job – not that he would mind going to Drassen the easier way, but he waned to stay alone for sometime and that was the right opportunity.