Unknown Heroes - Chapter 5

[Warenwolf]

Edit 01: Corrected a minor mistake. Thanks KiwiNZ.
Edit 02: Added link to the next chapter (you'll find at the end of this chapter)


Here is chapter 5 of Unknown Heroes (It ha been finished in the personal record time of under three hours of writing but I am still one chapter short of upholding my promise of two chapters per month. Plenty of things get in the way of writing so be patient)

You may notice that I sometimes use words system and sector when I mean the same thing (an area of X-universe that is accessed by use of the space gates). That’s because the game does the same thing and inadvertently it had sneaked into my writing.
I have not added glossary with this chapter, because there isn’t many new terms in this chapter that, in my opinion, are not self-explanatory.

Although I have obtained the spelling and grammar checking software and therefore my English should be better in this chapter compared to the previous two ones, please do write if any of you Brits or Americans spot unusual or wrong use of the English language.

Below I have added links to the previous chapters of Unknown Heroes:

Chapter 4 : Trade run to Hell
Chapter 3 : Old connections
Chapter 2 : Means for revenge
Chapter 1 : First kill

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Chapter 5: Awakening of the storm




“The color of the skin doesn’t look right”
“It is just a side effect from the treatment. The probes aren’t indicating that anything is wrong”
“I still think you should check it out here on the station. I know couple of doctors that are reliable”
Otto just shook his head in disagreement while removing the medical probes and putting his shirt back on. He was confident that the treatment he received on the small pirate station in The Hole system was sufficient. The doctor that have treated him had ranked among best hundred in Argon Federation, but have fallen from grace when he had recommended a medicament that was later revealed to be a carcinogen. In debt and newly divorced, he fled from his creditors to the pirate station in The Hole system, opening a small practice. That was fortunate for Otto, as he had to treat his wounds from a recent planet visit…

Suad Khan, on other hand, shook his head in disbelief of how lightly the youth nowadays took their health. Last stazura, Otto had been explaining how he got the wound. The reason for Otto’s travel was placed on the table in front of the two men.
The ancient looking weapon resembled weapons from historical-theme films. Entirely black, it looked like a pipe with a synthplast lasrifle butt attached. Large scope on the top was another modern addition. It had two small antennas and had no eyepiece, a detail that suggested that only a pilot, with slave chip implant, could access scope’s functions. Or, alternatively, a certain cyberborg.
The two men studied the weapon for some time, appreciating the workmanship that had produced the weapon.
“It took him only ten local hours,” Otto commented.
“How much is that in stazuras”
“Eight or nine, I am not certain how fast the planets rotation was… By the way, why all the extra precaution when I docked?”
Smile disappeared from Suad’s face and he motioned Otto to get closer so he could see the screen on Suad’s PDA. He linked up the PDA to the surveillance cameras that covered area outside his shop. Suad focused on two men playing chess.
“They are playing chess, just like the other people around them,” Otto commented, not getting the point. Suad then loaded a videofile that was one wozura old, taken at the time when Otto was crawling trough ruins of a city on Olmancketslat’s World.
Same men that played chess on the plaza outside Suad’s shop, were taking one wozura ago pictures of Suad’s property on Argon Prime.
“Holy crap! Who are those people?” Otto asked.
“No idea really. First, I had thought that that my coworkers in intelligence service were on me and knew about my association with you and Erich. Then I did couple of picture based scans and one name kept coming up - Boris Gellar”
“But…Why…What does he want?” Otto stuttered recognizing the name. He could not see any connection between commander of the taskforce in which he had served once and his current life.
“I haven’t been able to figure it out. I have been monitored once before by…”
“Admiral Boris Gellar?” Otto interrupted.
“I am not sure. At that time, I thought that the Navy intelligence was behind it. But I had no resources like those I have today, so I couldn’t be sure. Now… Perhaps it had been Boris Gellar, your former admiral… But I am unable to understand why he would to that…”
“Maybe he never retired? Maybe they transferred him to intelligence. He certainly wasn’t the right stuff for commanding a taskforce”
For Otto, retired admiral Boris Gellar was a coward whose cowardice had cost many people their lives. Navy’s decision to award admiral Boris Gellar for his actions was the major cause for Otto to leave the Navy.
“No. That I would know. The bizarre thing is how Mr. Gellar got rich”
“I thought he had been born rich”
“Not really. When I discovered who was paying the men spying on me, I did some background research,” Suad said while showing to Otto on his PDA an article from the local newspaper.
“He got rich on Nividium. He found couple of asteroids that had yield of 34.”
“Highly unusual. Most finds are only 4 to 6 yield class,” Otto commented.
“That’s not the point her. My point is this: Why would a sixty year old retired admiral start prospecting?”
Most of the prospectors were poor, young and uneducated men and women, lured by promises of high yield asteroid that would solve all their problems. Few success stories made sure that there were always plenty of new prospectors. Half of them would within one year return to their planets disillusioned and indebted. The other half would die from equipment failures, space radiation, Xenon raiding parties or pirates preying on inexperienced pilots. Boris Gellar was old enough to know better.
“Not much of a lead to follow. Yes, it is strange that he would start prospecting when he could live a comfortable life from his pension from the Navy. But, philosophizing about it does not lead us anywhere. I don’t think we should waste our time trying to find out how the bastard got rich. It wouldn’t tell us why he is spying on you right now”
“I agree… But I got feeling that this Nividium story is significant in some way.”
“Why?” Otto asked, not convinced.
“Some time after he found the asteroids, he sold the rights to Steinar Rudel, the brother to Max Rudel.”
“Same man that Erich is hired to kill?”
“Yes. His brother bought the rights to the asteroids, took up a loan using the asteroids as security and than using his new capital took control over NSM. Than he died in an accident and his brother inherited his shares in NSM”
“What does that prove? That this universe is a small place. Don’t waste your time on that. We should concentrate on how to get this thing down on Argon Prime,” Otto said pointing to the solid shot rifle on the table.
“That is not the problem. Scanners on the commercial shuttles are calibrated to detect power cells used in laser weapons and that baby over there,” Suad pointed to the rifle, “has none. The real problem is the chemical propellant used in individual cartridges. If it is nitrate based, which I assume it is, it could be detected by the chemical sniffers.”
Chemical sniffers were devices that could detect tiniest chemical particles in the air. In all known space, such sniffers were installed on every space ship port and entrance to public place or shop. Reason to this was to prevent terrorist from carrying explosives, biological or chemical substances trough such chemical checkpoints. Nitrate, a common component in most explosives would start alarms if brought near a chemical sniffer.
“How about putting it a box with vacuum? You have any of those?”
“Yes, actually we use those to transport around Xenon circuits boards. I can send both the rifle and its ammunition in one of those. Erich has access codes to the terminal where my things arrives and could easily pick it up”
“Wouldn’t such package be intercepted by Boris Gellar’s friends?” Otto asked concerned that the rifle that he had struggled so much to obtain, would simply be stolen.
“Government property. Armed guards all the way,” Suad answered smiling.





Tanya walked fast until she turned the corner. Then turning around, she walked back. She spotted him immediately. The man seemed to freeze in a tenth of a sezura before turning to nearest shop to view the displayed merchandize.
Tanya decided to walk over to Billy’s Bar. She was worried. First the unexplained disappearance of Mr. Starfield, the hired assassin. Then few tazuras ago, the man in charge of Sector 21’s intelligence observed that unidentified men, recently arrived on passenger ship from Argon Prime system, followed Tanya and Tony. Tanya had suspected that police was behind and that disappearance of Mr. Starfield had something to do about it. She had tried to relax by telling herself that Mr. Starfield’s disappearance was one of his tricks. How then to explain men following them? If they had been police agents, they surely would have arrested Tony and Tanya by now.
Tanya dismissed those thoughts and concentrated about Billy. That morning she had seen Billy’s face turn from his usual expressionless to frightened expression when one of the suspected spies followed her to Billy’s Bar. Wondering why Billy was so scared, she had ordered couple of her own spies to spy on Billy.
Her thoughts again turned again to the missing assassin and she wondered whether hiring Mr. Starfield had been the first step on the road to disaster.





At the same time, on Argon Prime’s surface, the man Tanya knew as Mr. Starfield, had just decoded the message that followed with the package from Suad Khan. Erich Campbell too was worried. Just like Suad, he did not understand why Boris Gellar would spy on Suad. The only link between Erich, Otto and Suad, message said, and Boris Gellar was NSM. Apparently, seven jazuras ago, Boris Gellar had sold Max Rudel’s older brother rights to four Nividium rich asteroids. Still Erich could not see how this was related to men spying on Suad. Erich spent next few mizuras trying to come up with plausible theories, dismissing them one by one. Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Erich concluded that too few facts were available to reach a conclusion.
He destroyed the message and than checked the rifle trying to determine whether it had been built according to his specifications. Since this type of weapons produced too much noise to be tested without running risk of being detected, it was important that weapon had exactly same specifications as weapons Erich had used before.
Free floating barrel and exact dimensions would ensure, theoretically, that this rifle would behave just as rifles Erich had fired before, but Erich knew enough about this type of weapons to know that every rifle behaved differently.
Ideally, this rifle should have arrived one week ago, giving Erich enough time to find a safe spot to test the weapon. Erich was not angry on Otto for delivering the weapon later than agreed – he knew that Otto had done everything to get the rifle and deliver it fastest possible to Erich.
He turned on TH projection and started to take apart weapon to clean and oil it. Hologram showed a local news reporter interviewing fifty-year-old woman. This caught Erich’s attention and he turned up the volume.

“I am asking everyone who knows anything about the whereabouts of my son to call police.”
“Police had told us that there is no evidence that something bad had happened to your son”
“I am his mother. I just know that something had happened. He always visits me on Fridays and calls me every other day. I have called everyone but no one has seen him”


Picture changed to studio where news anchor laughing commented, “If I had such annoying mother I too would have “disappeared”. Anyway if you know anything about this man call this number. And Markus if you are watching this please call your mother.”
Hologram showed now a picture of a man that looked barely over eighteen years old.

Erich swallowed hard and turned of the TH. Hologram picture lingered few moments before fading and disappearing. It showed the young man that Erich had killed two wozuras ago.





Otto was in the Billy’s Place listening for the rumors of anything-unusual happening. He spotted Tanya and recognized her as the woman that had been together with Tony when Otto had spied on him. After some time, two unfamiliar faces showed up. They picked each their own place, but Otto didn’t doubt for sezura that they were part of a team. He noticed that one of them glanced now and then on Tanya.
Otto paid for his drinks and then left the bar. He had confirmed Suad’s suspicions that the Erich’s employers were too monitored by some unknown forces. He went straight for the docks, intending to fly back to Argon Prime immediately.
Immersed in his own thoughts, he didn’t spot the Split that had stopped in the middle of the corridor, reading something. Otto bumped into him only slightly but that was enough to fire up the Split,
“How dare you to touch me, lower creature! I, warrior of great family Wyrta will…”
The Split didn’t finish his speech because Otto had jumped straight up and had kicked the Split using his both legs right in the head. Both landed on the floor but while the Split still recovered from the shock of broken nose and missing front teeth, Otto had jumped up once again and landed with points of his boots right on the Split’s stomach. The Split started to vomit his breakfast and it was clear that he was no longer a threat. None of the nearby Splits came to aid of the Split lying on the floor. All of them were laughing and showing Otto the sign of good entertainment.
Otto harried to the Docks, wanting to avoid confrontation with the Station Security.





“Honey, is the link established?” Bruno Gellar asked his secretary. She glanced on the display, before answering,
“In few sezuras. Just push the button when ready. We had reserved the encrypted COMSAT line for one stazura, just as you had requested. Expected delay time is 0,09 sezuras. Unfortunately there is much disturbance on the networks this stazura”
“Thank you. You may leave now”
When his secretary left the room, Mr. Gellar turned on the screen. Smiling face of Max Rudel greeted him. The Max was always smiling, Bruno thought.
“Long time since we spoke, old friend. I can’t say that I am too happy to speak to you. Usually your calls mean bad news,” Max Rudel said leaning back on his chair.
“And indeed bad news I bring,” Boris Gellar replied. He used a napkin to wipe off the sweat from his forehead before continuing, “I have evidence that Binyamin Halevy is well and alive and that he had sent assassins after you.”
Max Rudel rolled his eyes in an obvious show of disagreement. Two man had been trough this before, Boris trying to persuade Max that some disaster was imminent. Secretly, Max Rudel considered his partner a coward, constantly fearing even his own shadow. Max Rudel wondered, not for the first time, how the thick man got his admiral rank in first place. Must have been his political connections, he concluded. Despite being irritated, Max Rudel spoke with calm voice, speaking slowly,
“Boris, friend, how long have you looked for evidence that captain Halevy had survived on that Xenon controlled planet? We go trough this every five to six jazura. Do you know how many strings McCarthy and me had to pull before getting us of the hook when you decided to spy on that intelligence officer?
All that spying must have cost millions just in payments to your men. You could have a harem of women for the money you have spent on spies. If you have listened to my advice you would have been at peace now”
“When you are an admiral everybody’s eyes follows every movement you make. Even my toilet visits were loged! There is no chance I could ever meet Halevy on two men hand. I couldn’t kill him and get away from it. And my investments which you have so low opinion of, have paid off. Listen to this,” Boris said turning on the audio recording of Billy’s interrogation, smiling triumphantly.
When it was over, Max Rudel, obviously bored, commented, “I knew already all that. I have informers too, you know. Tazura after Tony had had his meeting with the man you claim is Erich Campbell, I was informed. My men have told me also that this kid have no money to pay this assassin. He bought a ship, in hope of earning the money for the assassin, I guess. But the ship was destroyed or something within two wozuras. Kid claimed that pirates did it but I am inclined to believe that the idiot smashed it against an asteroid in the asteroid belt. Anyway, same source tells me that Mr. Starfield is still in the station, sightseeing and doing no attempt on my life. I believe also that this assassin is just a fake. How could a kid like Tony hire a real assassin?”
“I’m thinking that you are not taking this seriously. I am sure that Mr. Starfield is same person as Erich Campbell and I have evidence to prove that. And my men have not seen Mr. Campbell during their entire stay on Ore Belt’s Trading Station. So I don’t think he is there. My guess is that he is out there, hunting for you. Or me.” By this point Boris was on the boiling point. He felt frustrated by Max Rudel’s refusal to accept the undeniable fact that their former partner, Binyamin Halevy, was still alive.
“Perhaps your men aren’t doing what they have been paid for. I have logs of Ore Belt’s Trading Station right here and it seems that Mr. Starfield, which you claim is Mr. Campbell, have eaten a portion of fried eggs three stazuras ago.”
“Well, then the logs must have been tampered with!”
“Listen to me Boris. Binyamin Halevy is dead. Even if he has arisen from the dead, he is still nuts and not capable of executing any plan. If we assume that Erich Campbell is Mr. Starfield, that Halevy is still alive, what evidence do you have linking these two men? They weren’t even in the same unit. My guess is that, if Mr. Starfield is Erich Campbell, this former soldier has deserted just before you entered that Xenon sector. It wouldn’t be the first time a soldier deserts”
“You remember that case with that survivor they found drifting outside the gate leading to Xenon Sector 1051? He survived. He was in same unit as Erich Campbell. Both men survived and got of that planet somehow. My guess is that Halevy was with them.”
“Listen Boris, we could argue this thing all day long. Send me over your evidence and I will a look. If convinced I will do as you suggest. Right now, I am tired. My suggestion to you is following: Take that secretary of yours and sleep with her. Hire one more secretary and have threesome. Relax and don’t be so tensed. We are both surrounded and protected by an army of men. What can a single man do against us? If Halevy is indeed as alive as you suggest, he is still no threat. If he had been smart man he wouldn’t crossed us in first place…”
“Alright then, you’ll receive all the data I have gathered to you,” Boris accepted, not because he agreed with Max Rudel, but because the last few mizuras with frustration had taxed his strength. Most of his grown up life people obeyed his commands. Max Rudel’s unwillingness to accept Boris Gellar’s point of view right away was highly frustrating for him.
“Next time you call me Boris, surprise me with good news,” Max Rudel said, his smile returning to his face.
The screen went blank. Boris lent back on his chair. Even if Max Rudel was refusing to listen to reason, he was right on one thing. Boris had been tensed lately. Too tensed. Boris decided to do as Max Rudel suggested and pressed the call button for his secretary.





The Xenon A88.087 spacecraft or the PCPU ship class as its Terran inventors had named it eight centuries ago, aborted its oxygen removal program after the seven-jazura long run.
The once green jungle world below it was now grey. The huge rainforests have disappeared. The oxygen rich atmosphere had been for jazuras devoid of any oxygen. Successful removal of Homo Sapiens Sapiens was certain.
Initially A88.087 had planed to run this program for longer time but the current events had changed its plans. One deep space probe had detected unidentified ships on approaching vector four wozuras away. A88.087 had no ship identification databases on its storage units so it sent information to its escorting destroyer. One tenth of sezura later it got answer that no id matches were found. Then the destroyer, also aware of the potential threat, asked for instructions.
Usually the destroyer would have sent this information directly to Central Network, to the core nodes in the Network. However, since three decades ago, A88.0087 and its escorting destroyer D51.3421 had no contact with any Connected Systems. Being unconnected to the rest of Network was not usually a problem for A88.0087 since its sole task was to monitor previously terraformed planets in deserted sectors.
Now it had a new situation requiring non-available hardware and software. The parameters required for reprogramming of software and circuit logic without authorization of Central Network were met. Lower entity, D51.3421, had asked for nonexistent function. The situation was repetition of the situation that had happened seven jazuras ago when an enemy taskforce had entered the system.
Since the Network, unlike humans, never repeated their mistakes, A88.0087 having highest priority commanding control-processing unit onboard, was to be reprogrammed in order to meet the new threat. It started to execute its last program as A88.0087, starting docking procedures on D51.3421.





Gaining entrance to the top of the Vega Outpost’s postal building offered less challenge then expected to Erich. Due to the nature of the place, Erich expected heavy guard presence along with several passive and active alarm systems. To his surprise, few tazuras ago he discovered that he could easily gain entrance to the top of the building using the old style fire staircase. Once up there he looked around for suitable spot for what he planed next.
The Vega Outpost’s postal building was one of the few buildings that were as high as the Nazaroth Hotel was. Its placement was also convenient to Erich. In front of it was a plaza that brimmed with tourists during the day, but in this time of night it was deserted. Across the plaza lay Nazaroth Hotel.
Its shimmering, blue colored shielding field could be seen clearly in the darkness of the night. Lights in the hotel’s restaurant were on and Erich had clear view to Max Rudel’s reserved table. He took out a bag that was filled with sand, placing it on the floor. Its purpose was to serve as stabilizing support for the rifle. Erich adjusted its form and then, using his targeting implant, checked the distance to where his target would be. The result he got was almost 250 meters but he added one and half meter, since he assumed that the measuring signal had bounced back from the shielding field. The targeting implant was the most useful implant in Erich’s line of work. Erich’s model had in addition of several target tracking modes also capability to measure wind speeds, surrounding temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure, enabling Erich to use any precision weapons. It had also small archive containing instructions for maintenance and use of several thousands of weapons.
Erich checked his surroundings using several optical modes, changing from infrared to radar modes, searching for mechanical cameras in his surroundings that he might have missed in his first check. Ensured that the roof was safe, he then repeated the procedure on the neighboring roofs that he could see. Satisfied that he could not be observed in any way, he decided to go to sleep.





The hall was filled with the people. Most of them were young, barely older then the speaker that was holding the speech. Everyone’s eyes were on the young speaker.

“How much are we free? How much do we have influence over the decisions that are made in our name?”
Couple of voices yelled, “None”. The speaker smiled and continued,

“Let me do the math for you. Station owners have the sole right to choose three of five Sector Senators. The more stations you own, the more value does your vote have. And if you own stations in different sectors then you can vote multiple times. Now how many stations do you, my friends, own?”
Crowd laughed, obviously no station owners were among them. Speaker laughed too.

“So in our sector twelve billion people can vote for two senators, while under six people vote for other three senators. Now whose interests does this Sector Senator group represent? Not mine certainly! If they represented mine interests, they wouldn’t vote for relaxation of worker safety rules which they did yesterday.”
The crowd gave speaker tremendous applause to his last comment. Most of them worked in mines and work safety was big issue when working on asteroid with only centimeter of metal protecting you from the deadly vacuum and space radiation.

“Now Sector Senators constitute 30 percent of the total number of senators in the Senate. Populace of Argon Prime votes rest of them. So thirteen billion people in Argon Prime and some 1400 factory owners decides over the remaining 450 billions citizens in Argon Federation.”
Again, a thunderous applause from the crowd. Many people living outside the Argon Prime were irritated of how little their votes mattered in elections
“So my friends your voice is less important to our politicians than condition of cows transported on the roads of Argon Prime. So what can we do about that? I have tried to send couple of letters to the media but I got no response. Perhaps because 85 percent of all media is owned by six men? I say that the time that we tell our government what we think of them! I say it is time that we…”

Terracorp’s Station Security dressed in riot gear interrupted the speaker, their commander using loudspeaker telling, “Time to go home people, this unlawful meeting is over. If you are dissatisfied with the political system we have, use the lawful means to change it…”
“Yeah, like my vote isn’t going to the trashcan,” someone shouted. The crowd, agitated by the speech they have just heard and urged on by Sector 21 agitators was ready for violence. One wrong word on both sides and the blood would flow.
Instead, the speaker calmed the people saying that Security was not the enemy. Walking out of the hall, couple of Security officers made move to arrest him, but their chief stopped them.
Young man turned to the chief and said, “Thanks Pete.”
“Your father wouldn’t liked the way you are conducting yourself. This isn’t the way things are done. Unlawful meeting and…”
“Come on Pete, who do you think you are fooling? Your vote is worthless just as mine. We will both benefit if I am successful with my goals. And don’t talk to me about permits. If we had requested meeting about the rights of the dogs we would have gotten a permit on the spot.”
Crowd parted and the young man walked out. Several people congratulated him on the way out and he had to shake many hands. Suddenly one woman grabbed him and whispered in his ears, “We have to talk. At the Docks, E section” She quickly walked away.

Tony walked into E section of the docks and started to look for Tanya. After few sezuras he spotted her, flanked by two men he recognized from Sector 21 meetings.
“Nice speech,” she said.
“Thank you”
“Should have dropped the part of inequality of votes between Argon Prime’s people and colonists. You sounded like a separatist. And it was mistake of not letting people and Security crash together. Radicalization will more quickly expose the tyranny of the regime.”
“Those people are our friends. They are equally oppressed as we are. Once we have them on our side, the progress of our case will speed up. Besides, wouldn’t the people be the ones to pay for “the exposure of the tyranny” you are talking about?”
Tanya smiled. She was happy that she had recruited Tony. In one mazura, he had been member, Tony had rejuvenated the local branch of Sector 21. Almost two thirds of all young men on the local mining stations were members of the group because of Tony’s recruitment speeches.
Tanya’s expression changed to more serious when she changed the subject,
“I got bad news. Someone is spying on us. I think that police or some other group is monitoring us”
“Because of the assassin we have hired?” Tony asked, his confidence of few moments ago replaced by fear.
“I don’t think so. If they knew for sure we had hired someone like Mr. Starfield, we would be in jail by now. However, they are definitely suspecting something. Stay away from Billy and his bar.”
“Why? You think he is on their pay list?”
“Perhaps. My men saw Billy having meetings with few of the men that had followed me around. I am not even sure that the police are the one monitoring us. It could be NSM for all we know. Even I had heard rumors about you climbing on the table and threatening to take revenge on NSM. People around here may think that what you said was the drunken man’s ravings but NSM could see things otherwise”
“So what do you suggest we do next?” Tony asked with shaking voice.
“Calm down. We are still free. If the situation gets out of the control, make way for pirates and their base. From there we are going to make a run to Paranid border.”
“Shouldn’t we do that right now?” Tony asked, not convinced that waiting still was best course of action.
“We need to arrange for the necessary papers needed for travel trough Paranid space. Paranids are inclined to shoot anything without necessary papers”
“Why not run toward pirate controlled sectors?”
“This is the most dangerous route, going trough heavily guarded systems. Beside, if our enemies see us running, they will understand that we know about their spies. Then they will act against us. Calm down Tony. My feeling is that everything that is happening now is somehow connected to our friend Mr. Starfield. When he makes his move, I am speculating that our enemy will make his move too. For all I know, despite Mr. Starfield’s boasting, the assassination is still wozuras away, which gives us plenty of time to take precautions. You had better relax and prepare for the party tomorrow. You are the guest of honor, so you better be there!”
“I will come,” Tony said, managing a smile.





“Welcome, Sir. Pleasure to have you with us today. The food is already served, just as you have requested,” porter said bowing to Max Rudel.
The silent talk, stopped for few moments, as everyone recognized the newest arrival. Max Rudel and his wife Jacquelyn walked slowly, led by the waiter to their table that was always available only to them. Men watched Jacquelyn Rudel, hating Max Rudel for having her while their girlfriends and wives watched their men, hating Jacquelyn Rudel for her existence.
Max Rudel was not bothered by their looks – he used other people’s jealousy of him as a gauge that measures his own success. Just as they found their seats, 250 meters away, across the plaza outside the Nazaroth Hotel, on the top of a building Erich was checking his equipment.
Using his targeting implant, he determined temperature, air pressure, humidity and the speed of the wind and its direction. Seeing no change from his last measurement, he readied the rifle. Its scope, set to the distance of 251,5 meters, directed its image directly to Erich targeting implant. His arms implants made sure that his hands never shook, counteracting any movement in his arms that could be caused by his breathing or tiny muscle contractions.

“Would you want to see the wine list, Sir?”
“Yes, please,” Max Rudel answered. The two waiters gave Jacquelyn and Max Rudel the wine lists and then took two steps back, waiting for Max Rudel to make his choice. Max Rudel knew what he preferred; nevertheless, he enjoyed the ritual, taking his time. Finally, after studying the list for few moments, he ordered the Rheiman’s Old Wine.

For few sezuras, the wind seemed to stop blowing. Erich made immediately adjustments and took aim again. The sun peeked trough the clouds, bathing the glass wall of Nazaroth Hotel with golden color. Erich was temporarily blinded while using the scope’s zoom. Changing trough optical modes, he decided for infrared and interposed it over the picture that he received from the rifle’s scope. Finding his target again, he started to squeeze the trigger straight back using the ball of his finger.

Giving back the wine list back to the waiter, Max Rudel glanced through the window enjoying the view. Despite it was February, the temperature outside was fifteen Celsius and the grass was still green. He wondered whether to take long vacation after the weekend and visit with Jacquelyn their newly bought cottage.
He turned to the waiter, wanting to ask whether there was any news regarding their missing employer when the glass wall exploded showering Mac Rudel with pieces of broken glass. The waiter staggered few steps back, with a confused expression on his face and then collapsed. The only sound in the shocked and silent restaurant was Jacquelyn’s screams.



Continue to chapter 6

[KiwiNZ]

Excellent read! Nice development of things. Bugger only that Erich had to change to infrared, hence killing the flaming waiter

When Max enters the restaurant you refer to him as Max Gellar in one instance.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

[Elwood J Blues]

please do write if any of you Brits or Americans spot unusual or wrong use of the English language.[/quote]

What about Aussie's? We can read and write better than any other Kiwi, Brit or Yank! Just thought I'd point that out. Coincidently my post is following KiwiNZ.

Anyway it's starting to really take off this, when did you make the promise of two chapters a month?

Elwood J Blues.

[Warenwolf]

Excellent read! Nice development of things. Bugger only that Erich had to change to infrared, hence killing the flaming waiter

When Max enters the restaurant you refer to him as Max Gellar in one instance.

Looking forward to the next chapter!

That is not the reason he missed his target. Have they abolished military service in KiwiLand?
Now I have to rewrite the begining of chapter 6...
------------------

What about Aussie's? We can read and write better than any other Kiwi, Brit or Yank! Just thought I'd point that out. Coincidently my post is following KiwiNZ.

Anyway it's starting to really take off this, when did you make the promise of two chapters a month?

If certain Australian have an urge to comment on my English, he/she is welcome to.

Back to your question. I made that promise 09. March 2006 at 16:33. Actually I did not make a promise, I expressed an intent. All those years of political training kicked in


--------------------------------------------------------------

For the benefit of KiwiNZ the beginning of chapter 6 follows:

“Damn!” Erich cursed. The 12 mm projectile, upon hitting the glass wall, had changed direction sufficiently to miss the intended target. Erich had presumed that the glass wall would be thinner and would not affect the projectile that much. Wasting no time, not giving his target chance to recover from the shock, he reloaded and fired again.

[KiwiNZ]

I thought when he re-aquired his target after changing to infrared he accidentally chose the wrong person Him being such an experienced assassin I am surprised he would not have calculated the glass in, though

[Warenwolf]

I thought when he re-aquired his target after changing to infrared he accidentally chose the wrong person Him being such an experienced assassin I am surprised he would not have calculated the glass in, though

He isn't experianced with that weapon (gunpowder weapons are no longer in production in X-Universe). He chose the rifle for precision and untraceability. His overconfidence with weapons he don't really understand is going to get him ******

By the way, thanks to pointing out the mistake with Max Rudels name.