Tale of The Broken Sword

Chapter Fifty : An Operative's Opinion

23rd February, AD 2057

Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica

It was only a few minutes later that we ended up reaching the main elevator shaft. It stopped functioning when Tild blasted everything that’s standing in his way to bits and the security had disabled every moving object to keep him from moving elsewhere. They failed, as far as I know.

“Tild,” I asked as the man in thick set of jacket pulled up the extendable grappling hook attached to the side of his bulky equipment. Whatever it was, he was well prepared for this. “The reason you wanted to find the beacon tower. Why?”

“Why?” Tild repeated my question. “Well, I would not have done this if we wouldn’t have met you a few months ago.”

I raised my eyebrow at his words.

“That’s right,” Tild said, attaching the grappling hook to the tip of his bulky rifle-like launcher. He swung the long barrel around and set aim upwards on a pair of thick beams just below the top ceiling. Within seconds, the barrel blasted out with a loud hiss, and the compressed air sent the hook flying towards the beams and had them secured to it.

“Look here,” Tild showed a bullet cartridge case to me. It looked like it was crumpled and bend, neglected for a very long time.

“A talisman?” I inquired, examining the cartridge case deeply.

“No, it’s not,” Tild replied. “You can call it as something that only the soldiers whom you’d encountered a few months ago would have the entitlement to wear it. Some sort of an identity for an elite operative.”

“Wait a second with the talisman,” I said. “What’s with the ‘few months back’?”

“You don’t remember?” Tild sighed deeply. “At Melbourne, when you nearly had one of us. I was there, watching you, blending in with the crowd to avoid detection. That man, he’s one of us, he killed himself after saying a word or two at you. Remember?”

“Yeah...” I responded softly, relinquishing back the forgotten memories of that encounter. Some of the words spoke by that man still remained fresh in my mind. Best soldier, a hero..., the mighty Empire.... The Empire!

“Are you from that Empire?” I quickly asked, regaining to my full conscience.

Tild nodded. “The Ansteig Empire. It seemed a nice country from the outside view but once you’d come in, you’d wished that you’ll never set foot on that nation again. It was a totalitarian country as a whole, and it condemns anyone suspicious into their chambers and dungeons, waiting for a mandatory death sentence to take them away.”

A rusty cable snaked down past them, disappearing into the darkness below. Tild spit into the shaft but never heard it hit the ground. He then pulled himself back into the room and nodded at me.

“Ever since we’ve reported that you’re alive and here, the commandant at the other side had gone silent, as if they had abandoned us in this wretched world. We waited, and waited for a few months, and then we finally came into conclusion that they had left us to rot this world!” Tild slammed his fist to the metal railing of the shaft. “Some decided to take a new lease in life and remain here, whereas some, like me, chose to return. But then, not all beacon towers are working, so we’ve tried others. All of them died trying it, and I was the only remaining survivor left.”

After a few moments of silence, Tild finally smiled, “Don’t worry. I do not have any grudges against you or anything like that. The Empire is, if you want to know...”

Noticing that the cable was secured and the line was intact, he gestured at me to follow him. “I will tell the rest once we get there...”

Pulling out a winch and tossing it at me, Tild was already attaching his to the cable. Being the one that has never used this equipment before, I had a tough time attaching it to the cable. Once it was finally attached to the cable, I gave the clamp a good tug. Despite the rusty condition, it held tight.