Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (32 page)

Commander Trevor appears a little
calmer, but the frustration on his face still shows.

“But I should’ve been more
careful,” he says, his head leaned to the side, his elbow pressed against the
window.  “I shouldn’t have split us up.  If Colbo, Erawan, and Fenrir had more
reinforcements…”

“Then we all might have been
dead,” I say.  “Splitting up the team was right.  We had no other option,
especially since we were on our own mission to the casino.”

“And that turned out to be a red
herring, one I should’ve seen a mile away!  But I didn’t!”

He punches the side door in
frustration and it startles me a bit.

“What the fuck was I thinking?!”
he yells.  “There’s so much I did wrong!  I bit on the wild goose chase, I lead
my other team into an ambush.  Years of experience and I walked into it like a
dope.”

“Commander…”

I don’t know how to respond.  He
glances over and sees me blanked with a half confused, half scared expression.

“I’m sorry, Apollo,” he says.  “I
shouldn’t lose my composure like that, especially as a leader.”

“It’s okay, Simon,” I respond.

“It’s just, I don’t know.  We’ve
known each other for a long time, right, Apollo?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Can I ask you something then and
get your honest opinion?”

“Sure.”

“After what’s happened tonight, do
you still have confidence in me?”

I’ve never seen the Commander as
vulnerable as this.  The mere notion that he’s coming to me with uncertainties
in himself is crazy.  And the fact that he’s asking me for advice is nuts.

Any of these actions would be
preposterous on any other night.  But then again, it’s not any night, it’s a
night where the mission has gone awry and over half the team could be dead. 
Even the greatest of men are only human.

“Of course, I do,” I respond instinctively.

“Apollo, this isn’t some kind of
test, you can be honest with me.”

I hesitate to say what’s on my
mind because I don’t want to distress him any more in this fragile state, but I
know he wants a real opinion.

“There’s one thing I think Fenrir
was right about, ever since we started this mission,” I say.

“And what’s that?” he asks.  His
voice is accepting, so I know there won’t be any hard feelings if I speak my
mind.

“We’ve underestimated these
halfkinds greatly,” I say bluntly.

“I see.”

“We came into this situation
headstrong, with little time to prepare.  The strategy you made was fine, but
our attitude towards it, Coblo’s, Borton’s, hell even you and me were
arrogant.  After we first killed Lombardi Lawton, we were handfed all these
leads in a matter of hours.  Sure we were cautious, sure we considered that it
might be a ruse, but we overlooked it.  Why?  Because we didn’t think our enemy
to be capable of such ingenuity.  You thought it, I thought it, the only creature
who didn’t was Fenrir.  We saw how easy it was to kill the birdman and thought
it’d be the same for the rest.  But these halfkinds have proven to be much more
dangerous than we thought.  Their planning has been meticulous and they’ve been
able to figure out our moves.  Us, a highly trained group of soldiers, and
we’ve been played so easily.  It’s because we let them play us.”

He doesn’t look angry or sad.  He
simply processes what I’ve told him.

“After our encounter with them at
the casino,” I say, “I’ve learned not to underestimate them.  I mean, when we
came in, we had them captured, the mission should’ve been over.”

“But it was Borton’s fault, he
charged in and caused the chaos,” he says.  “He disobeyed me.”

“True, but even after all that,
you chose to take on Oscar one on one, without a firearm.  It was reckless.  If
you saw him as a bigger threat, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have tried to be a
hero.”

“So you’re saying I should’ve killed
him, like a murderer?  Like Borton did, in cold blood?”

“No.  What you should’ve done was
treated him like any other hostile and not like some scared civilian.”

“I see your point.”

He doesn’t seem disappointed by my
words, but rather regretful of his actions.

“I’m guilty of this, too,” I say. 
“I chased after those twins like a rabid dog chasing frightened kittens.  But I
could’ve very well been killed.”

“But they did spare you.”

“True, which shows you the power
they possess.  They made the decision not to kill me, like a god over a
mortal.  And it shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but my carelessness
allowed it to happen.  All I’m saying is we have to start realizing that these
halfkinds are a lot more cunning than we anticipated.  We can’t let our guard
down anymore.”

He is about to say something, but
pauses first.  He then speaks.  “Looking back on things now, would you have
done everything the way I did?”

“I probably wouldn’t have and I’m
not just saying that to be kind.  As I said, I had the same cocky attitude as
the rest of us and we really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. 
But looking at it now in hindsight, we made the wrong moves.  The important
thing is we learn from them and move on.”

Commander Trevor turns his face to
mine.  “Apollo, I appreciate your honesty.  As always, you’re someone I can
rely on.  And I’m not saying that to be cordial, it’s from the heart.  I’m glad
you’re on this mission with me.”

In the beginning, I was fearful
that my words would have strained our partnership, but it looks like they
strengthened it.

“Unbelievable,” Commander Trevor
says while looking at the view ahead.

In the distance we see a partially
destroyed building, smoldering, smoke leaking from its wreckage and rising to
the sky.  Debris is scattered about everywhere.  It’s a sea of metal, wood,
electronics, and death.  We’ve arrived at the Gonzalez teleportation station.

Commander Trevor lands his car
immediately and I jump out to survey the damage.  Whatever explosive they used
was powerful enough to take down the whole station.  There are so many things
crackling in flames that it makes it hard to identify a source.  There’s a glow
coming from the edge of the wreckage, the remnants of the power generator.  It
smells like sweltering metal and the wind blows ashes into our faces.

The Commander puts on some goggles
and assesses the damage while I continue to survey the area.

“Apollo, use your skills to see if
you can locate the others,” he says.

I equip my scent booster and get
to work.  There’s so much wreckage, it’ll be hard to sort through everything. 
Luckily for me, I’m able to catch a scent right from the get go.  It’s Colbo.

I press my nose on the ground and
sniff furiously.  I breathe in deeply and walk up and down until I home in on a
trail.  From there on, I tread steadily, examining every inch and crevice until
I can locate Colbo.

Sure enough, I find him and he’s
dead.  His body is smoking, the hair on his back charred to a crisp.  I see
dried blood and slightly torn pieces of flesh.  Half of his face is scared,
small chunks seem to have disappeared from it.  His mouth still flashes his
trademark frown, but some of his lip has been ripped apart, making his teeth
very visible.  There’s a small cavity in his chest, but it’s blackened and
burnt.  Most of him remains intact, nothing seems to be dismembered, but he didn’t
go peacefully.  When the blast happened, he must have been engulfed in the
flames, as his weight was too large for force to fling him.

“Commander!” I yell.  “Colbo is
over here and he’s gone.”

Simon sprints to my location and
sees his remains.  He doesn’t say a word, he just kicks a nearby piece of
debris across the carnage.

“We’ll find something to cover him
with,” he says sternly.  “For now, see if you can locate Fenrir or Erawan.”

I once again sniff the ground to
see if I can catch a trail.  I walk toward the perimeter, past a bent and
scorched teleporter until I’m able to pick up Erawan’s familiar odor.

I don’t have to do much digging
for him because I already see part of his body sticking out from the ground. 
His head seems to be buried beneath the piles of rubble.  The rest of his him
is turned over on one side and is under some scattered metal and wood.  I swipe
the ruins away with my paws.

His body isn’t charred like
Colbo’s.  It’s actually relatively clean and as I scan it with my eyes, I find
it hard to figure out what happened to him.

“I found Erawan!” I yell to
Simon.  He runs over and sees what happened.

“He doesn’t look as bad as Colbo,”
Simon says to me.

“Yeah, but something doesn’t look
right.”

Commander Trevor looks closely at
him, eyeing every inch available.

“You’re right, Apollo,” Commander
Trevor says, “something looks off.  Help me lift his body out from the
wreckage.”

He goes over to lift one leg and
suddenly jumps back.  I don’t understand why he does it until I sniff under the
corpse.  It smells like embers.  His body isn’t turned over on one side, it’s
the only side.  The other half of his body is completely black.  And his head
isn’t covered beneath the piles of rubble, it simply isn’t there.  Erawan’s
body had been disfigured beyond recognition.  He didn’t deserve this.

Commander’s reaction to Erawan’s
death is different from his reaction to Colbo’s.  He looks utterly disgusted by
the sight in front of him.  It is the kind of mutilation you wouldn’t wish up
on your worst enemies, the kind that stays with you forever.  He was a member
of the highest guard in his society and there he lies before us, a barely
recognizable corpse of his former self.  You never think such warriors can go
out this way, but he did.  Simon gets on one knee and lowers his head in
respect.  I lower mine as well.

“I’m sorry that things ended this
way, my friend,” Simon says, “but don’t worry, your death will not be in vain.”

We stay there in silence for a few
minutes.  Commander Trevor then gets back to his feet and looks around.

“Were you able to pick up the
scent of the halfkind responsible for this?  Curtis Lawton?” he asks me.

“No,” I reply.  “He probably was
vaporized since the bomb was in his possession when it went off.”

“Good,” he says.

Commander Trevor drops his gun and
puts his hands on top of his head.

“I can’t believe this happened,”
he says to himself.  “All this destruction, it’s my fault.”

I want to console him, but I feel
that silence is the only appropriate response.

After a few moments, he turns to
me and asks, “Did you find Fenrir?”

I shake my head no.  “There hasn’t
been a single trace of him.  If he died, I would’ve found his scent or
something.”

“Lucky for you, he didn’t,” a
familiar voice says.  It’s Fenrir and he looks like he’s been through hell.

November 17, 3040
3:46 AM

I feel like shit.  My fur smells
like ashes, while specs of blood spot it red.  My legs hurt, my back hurts, my
head is pounding, and I can’t even move my tail without feeling pain.  I look
around and see only the scattered remains of the teleportation station.  That
Curtis Lawton sure did a number on us.

The instant he let go of the
trigger, I thought I was done for.  All I could do was run as fast as
possible.  By the time the bomb exploded, I was already near the exit where I
had cleared out the mines.  I was fast, but not fast enough.  I felt the ground
shake and a ripple of wind jettison past my legs.  Before I could get farther,
I was in the air, head facing down, ass facing up.  I remember flying straight
forward until I felt a violent thud hit my back.  After that, it was lights
out.

When I woke up, I was greeted by
murkiness.  My vision was obscured by debris.  Once I lifted my head, the
rubble fell off, and I saw the carnage that had unfolded.  The whole station was
demolished.  The smell of soot hit my nose so abruptly that I sneezed it out. 
Fires raged on and smoke filled the air.

I looked at myself to survey any
injuries I might have obtained.  I felt funny on the inside, so I pulled out
the bioscanner and gave myself a quick read.  A few minutes later, the results
came, some broken ribs, a hairline fracture on my hind leg, and cuts on my
back, nothing big.  But I do have a large trail of blood running from my face. 
I must’ve been cut pretty deep, I’m lucky that one of my eyes wasn’t taken out.

I was healthy, for the most part,
so I started to look for the others.  If I was able to survive with no major
injuries, I was hopeful that they did, too.  But it didn’t take me long to
discover their bodies.  I found Erawan first.  The discovery I made was grim. 
He didn’t talk much, but I respected him.  I knew of his reputation and I knew
the warrior’s heart he had.  And now he lies before me, his body defiled like
vermin.

Then I found Colbo dead under some
other junk.  I didn’t like his smart ass attitude, but I did owe him my life. 
I will remember that.  Two team members’ lives ended so suddenly, it left me
wondering how I was still alive.

I also wondered what Curtis Lawton
was trying to say with his final words.  He mentioned something about being a
pawn, about being betrayed.  From what Trevor told me, the halfkinds he
encountered didn’t know about any proposed meeting, that they were set up. 
Then this halfkind tells me in his dying breath that he was a fool who was
played and rats out the location of his brother.

Tiago - that was the name he
mentioned.  According to his files, he was the oldest and most likely the
leader.  He must’ve orchestrated all the events that happened today, from
Lombardi’s raid to Oscar’s standoff to Curtis’s kamikaze mission.  Judging from
Curtis’s change of heart, he wasn’t playing nicely.  He probably used and
abused his siblings in some kind of master scheme.