Zan's face is all blank. Such a dumb expression for such a smart guy. I think I need to explain to him everything. “You see, the gang leaders bought the information already from some of the crooked guards that something funny was to happen. They made a plan before these guys even showed up to make a run for it, take over the whole station.”

“Fuck.”

“Yeah,” I say and chuckle. “I have no idea how they shut the power out. Must have paid a lot of money to underpaid guards because they even neutralized the collars around our necks. Imagine that. Two hundred murdering bastards finally freed to do whatever they wanted.”

“And what happened then? Where was I?”

“I don’t fucken know where you were. There were certainly no trees to climb up and hide.”

“Hey, that’s not fair! You threw me in there in the first place.”

“I know. I’m just kidding. Anyway, convicts charged the guards, light weapons were fired, people killed. And all I could think about was what would happen if this was going to screw up the plans now and I don’t end up getting sent somewhere to kill people.”

“You crazy fuck.”

“Yeah. So I run toward the podium. The short time it took for the batteries to kick in the secondary power was enough. It’s a bloodbath. Dozens of convicts lay blown away. But guards are down too. I count six of them stabbed all over, bleeding and dying. The gangs’ lieutenants got their weapons, holding hostages, screaming at them, pushing them, waiving their acquired weapons as if those would set them free.

The Elvish-Wanna-be was nowhere. Just disappeared. But I saw the kid who spoke to us being tossed around between inmates as if he was a ball.

I moved fast, grabbed one of the convicts who wanted to pierce his throat and stabbed his own shank inside his eye, and screamed to everyone how this one was mine. Not that they protested. They had women, circled them, and watched them suddenly in dead silence.

But then, someone opened the door and started to hustle the hostages out. I guess they were trying to get to the space gates and the spaceship that must have docked there.

I threw the kid salesman through the door, told him to hide, and then shoveled people around me to advance forward.

I got to Erwin as he turned around to run. Got him by the throat. Snapped his neck, and as he spun around, the gun he was holding, started to spit light from it, started to cut the convicts all around. I took it off his dead hands and fired on my own, cutting two other lieutenants that were running down the corridor, trying to escape, pushing the hostages along.

My fellow inmates behind me had an idea to try and charge me, but I blasted ten, fifteen of them in a matter of seconds, and then they all fell back.

‘Run,’ I told the salesman who seemed to have hugged the floor as if his life depended on it.

Without waiting for him to listen, I ran down the corridor and pick the guns from the dead inmates. Sure as hell I was not going to leave them there for the bastards behind me to come and get them. From what I knew, I counted three more missing guns and I knew they would be now firing on anything that moves, thinking they had nothing to lose. I had to be more careful.

So, after I made it to the next corner, I carefully duck my head out first to see what gives and if there was a barrel of the gun looking my way. But there was nobody there. The convicts had already raced behind the other corner, twenty yards away.

As I run to it, I heard shooting and screams, and as I come there, I knew I’d have to do some fancy shooting if I was not to kill any hostages.

I kneeled down and with the gun pressed against my cheek, I took a peek.

The scene I saw shocked me.

“What, what happened? Was it me?”

“No, man. It was not you. You probably crawled to some corner back there and put your hands over your head, trying not to…”

“Shut up!”

“Man, it was that Elvish Wannabe.”

“What?”

“Yeah. He was among them all…”

“But you said he disappeared.”

“Well, he appeared there, and moved so fast among them, slicing them, didn’t even need a gun to take them down. That stick he had was not a light weapon but a thin sword. The way he moved among them, they were all sliced up in a matter of seconds, twenty, thirty people.”

“You don’t fucken’ say.”

“Yes. And some tough bastards too. Three guns. All sliced up. A few missing their head, a few missing their legs. Damn. A sight to scare normal folks into nightmares.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, so…”

“What happened then?”

“Nothing. I came from around the corner, pointing the gun at him

“And?”

“I looked that that bastard, for a second I even contemplated blasting him just to get that perfectly composed face of his turned to pain and dust. But I… decided not to. So, I lowered the weapon in my hands and the two other ones I had over my shoulder and dropped them all on the floor, raised my hands up, and said, ‘I think your employees left that behind.’

“Shit, what did he say?”

“Nothing then. But when the prison guards finally arrived, he told them to keep me safe.”

“And did they?”

“Well, I’m here.”

“And what happened then?”

“The next day, they escorted me alone to talk to this Elvish-looking dude, and we got to talk a bit.”

“You alone?”

“Well, I was alone with him at a time. First, he thanked me for saving the lives of his employees. Yeah, then cared to ask me if I still want to sign up for their special program. By then, I was certain I was selected because he either wanted me to kill someone or a whole lot of someones. A job if you had to contract an army or a mercenary would cost you tens of millions if not more. And he was a killer. Takes one to know one.”

“Makes sense.”

“Of course. What else would you want from an inmate like myself?”

“So, why did you sign up? Why did I sign up?”

“I don’t know about you, but I have my own reasons.”

“Yeah, you’re crazy as fuck.”

“What got me off balance is when he said, ‘I went over all your records, and I see you have some basic training.’”

“A basic training?”

“I know. I was an elite military unit, trained twenty-four hours a day on occasions.”

“And that what surprised you?”

“No, it was then that he said, ‘But all that training is not enough. You will most likely die on this mission.”

“Shit. At least he did not lie to you.”

“I know. That’s what got me off balance. So, I said to him, ‘I know. I figured that one out already. But I will still sign up for your gig, whatever it is… if… you fill my condition.’

He looked at me so close, and I bet, I swear to you now, I bet he knew what I was going to say before I even said it. He said ‘And how much of conditions do you require?’

‘2 million of them. 2 million Federation Marks sent to my family.’

‘That’s a lot of money.’

‘That’s less than the cost of your trip here. So, don’t give me that. I won’t do it for all the promises you gave. But I will do it if I see the money deposited into my ex-wife’s account right now.’”

“Shit. That was smart,” Zan has to admit.

“Well, smart or not, that’s what I wanted.”

“Did he do it?”

“Yeah, just smirked, took his glasses off to show me the eyes that could cut me better than your knife. Eyes as cold as ice. No wonder he wanted them hidden. Then he says, ‘And you think your ex-wife deserves it?’”

‘Deserving has nothing to do with it,’ I told him. ‘That’s what I want. That’s why I did what I did. I want that… for my girls.’

He sighed there and then opened his comm device, flicked his fingers a few times, and… there was a money transfer to my wife’s account.

‘And there is something else.’ I said as I saw that done.”

“What, what fucken else could you want, man?”

“I told him this. ‘I have a roomie, Er’Cron. Orxian.’”

‘Got drunk in a bar, then killed ten people.’

‘Yeah, that’s the one. Look, I know he is dead meat if I’m gone. The only Orxian in the whole god-damned place with nobody to watch his back. Those racist human shitheads are going to line up to see who is the one to take his scalp. I won’t have it. Whatever chances he might have on the mission they selected for us, it will be bigger than zero. And, if we were to go together, I reckoned, our odds would more than double.’”

“And? Did he agree? What am I asking? Obviously, he did not.”

“Well, we go into a staring match, and he says nothing for a long moment.

‘It’s also non-negotiable,’ I said to break the silence. Fuck it. I won’t have Ercy on my soul as well.”

“Ercy? That’s what you call him?”

“Shut up. I bet even if they did not scramble your memories, you would not be able to remember your roommate.”

“Okay, okay, no need to get so defensive… So, what happened then?”

“In the end, he caved in. He said, ‘That can be done. I will authorize it. So, then we have a deal?’

I said, yes. And we shook heads on it.”

“Shit, so he fucked you.”

“Yes. And by now, Ercy is probably already dead. Fucken ‘ey.”

“And that’s how it ended?”

“Well, I thought you needed to hear that, but-”

“What else? Tell me, tell me, please.”

“Well, as I was walking out of the room, the Asain girl came to me with a scanner in her hands.

She measured me up, scanned me, and all that stuff. But as she was finishing the thing up, she leaned it against me, looking me straight in the eyes.

‘The things are not what they seem,’ she said. ‘Drink this and live,’ she continued suddenly pressing something in my hand, away from the view of the guard escorting me. I feel it’s a pill I’m supposed to swallow.

‘And when you’re alone, ask for Orientation. That’ll help. Authorize Orientation, remember those words. When you’re alone.’

‘Why?’ I asked her, seeing clearly she was doing something that she was not supposed to, something that might actually help me.

‘I’m from Elma Major. And Elma Major remembers,’ she said and then turned around and was gone.”

“What happened on Elma Major?”

I am not going to get into that. Explaining the combat, the sacrifice, all who died.

“Maybe… one of the rare good things I’ve done,” I mutter in the end.

“Like what?”

“I… Don’t want to think about it now.”

“Why?”

“Fuck off. I talked enough.”

“Maybe that’s why you remembered. She helped you.”

It’s so much more than that. But I don’t want to go into that. I remember Ercy. And my mood turns even more sour and morbid. Another soul that relayed on me I could not help.

I gasp for air, and it hurts when it gets in.

I will meet Mr. Elvish Wannabe again. I know I will meet him again. And then, there won’t be any more lies or broken promises between us. I will not make him scream. Or suffer. I will not put his head through some wall, or break every bone in his body. No. I will not talk. I will not even say a word. I will just blow him away. Terminate his existence. Without any more words. Without a blinking of my eye. For the friend lost. For the same thing not to happen to someone else. As grand as the universe is, it still is not enough for the two of us around. And the scum like him does not deserver to breathe the same air my or Ercy's daughters do.

I think about those girls, seeing them in Ercy's video calls, seeing them what they would look like once they hear of their father being murdered. My eye might wet, but my resolve only goes stronger. I'll win this fucken' game. And I'll get to see Mr. Elf again.