Chapter 6. Last drinks

1888 Kalgoorlie Goldfields, Australia

"Fuck you George." Innis said, "I thought I was done with

all this shit."

Innis wiped the blood off his knife on the dying mans' shirt.

"Doesn't seem that you are." Eurides said.

George lay sprawled face down in a growing pool of blood

that spilled from where Innis had stabbed him.

"I gave him and that idiot brother of his a job and this is how

they repay me."

Innis picked up the gun from where George had dropped it.

"The fault lies not in the stars, dear Brutus." Eurides said.

"I'm not sure that Shakespeare would be happy with you

mis-quoting his lines." Innis said.

Eurides smiled.

Innis checked and cleaned the gun as he walked back towards

the mine office. Standing outside, he could hear two men

laughing and through the window he could see them sitting

at a table, drinking.

Arvi - Georges’ brother, was the bigger of the pair.

Innis opened the door and shot him in the face. The bottle

the big man was drinking from exploded into glass shards.

The second man - who Innis didn't know - fell backwards

in his chair in fright.

Innis stood over him with his gun in hand and looked

around the room. "What is your name?"

"Jonas. My name is Jonas."

"Well Jonas," Innis said, "this is your one and only chance,

who hired you?"

Jonas balked.

Arvi was still sitting upright in his chair, he groaned and

fell forward onto the table. Innis placed his gun against

the big mans temple and pulled the trigger. Blood and brain

flecked across Jonas’s face.

"It was Mr.Fields your partner." he blurted out.

"He paid us half up front and said he’d pay us the rest when

the job was done."

"When the job was done." Innis repeated.

"Is that your bag by the door Jonas."

"Wait!" Jonas said holding a hand in front of his face.

"What for." Innis said and shot him twice in the chest.

"What for indeed." Eurides said.

Innis reached out and finished a drink on the table.

"Tomorrow, my business partner Mr. Maurice Fields will be

joining his hired help at the bottom of the mineshaft where

an unfortunate mishap with explosive powder is going to

bring the roof down on all of them."

"What about you?" Eurides asked.

"After the dust settles, I'm going to sell up. There's always

plenty of buyers for a successful mine - even a collapsed one."

"That’s not what I meant." Eurides said.

She wet a cloth with whiskey from an upturned bottle

and gently wiped blood from his face.

"You're still floating along wherever the current takes you.

If you really have had of enough of all of this. Find a home and

put down some roots."

Home, Innis thought. He said the word aloud.

He'd almost forgotten what it meant.

*