A young man wakes up in the desert. The wreckage of an ambulance lies smashed against a boulder and charred to a crisp. By the stitches on his head and face, he assumes he was the patient. But why was an ambulance driving through a desert? Where wa...
All of them slowly took position, their guns pointing at Naga, awaiting readily their captain's order, defined by a sudden cry that launched a wave of shooting from and towards everywhere, making the crystals rumble, lifting a storm of leaves that briefly hid the scene. Even so, Virgil could make out a multitude of flashes on all sides, followed by a sudden grinding noise that seemed to come from hell itself, culminating in simultaneous screams of pain from all the soldiers, which faded suddenly away in the darkness. All the leaves fell to the ground. Where previously had been soldiers, only pools of blood were left. Festering coils of guts and limbs lay tied to the stems and leaves, died with dripping purple where someone had fired a gun.
It was not the first time Virgil had seen a spectacle like that, but he could never stop getting shellshocked. Much less this time. Much less by that being. There he was, heading for the exit without a single red stain on his white shirt and jeans, and with the same indifferent decision with which he had decided to survive all that time.
"Son of a...bitch," whispered Virgil.
"You saw it?" Seiber asked, showing up suddenly by his side.
"No, but I'd rather not. It's like each one had all their blood ripped out and spread across the damn place."
"He's field-dressed them. He treats them like prey. Like things to eat."
Seiber took a portable microphone connected to the internal loudspeakers of the greenhouse.
"Naga, stay by the entrance."
Naga had to speak loudly to be heard.
"I've passed your final test!"
"That wasn't your final test, it was just a warm-up. Stay where you are."
Seiber switched off the microphone and turned to Virgil.
"Go to the entrance."
"You want me to stay outside?"
"I want you to get in," answered Seiber curtly.
The silence which ensued was the tensest there had ever been between them. Virgil waited for Seiber to arch the corner of his mouth in a joking half-smile. By the time he realized it was never coming, the words themselves came out of his mouth.
"I won't go in, sir."
"You don't trust me?"
"I don't trust him."
"Forget him and trust me."
"Sir..."
"Don't think that because you're my newest member, you'll get preferential treatment if you don't toe the line."
"Yessir," replied the assassin between sighs.
Virgil turned around and retraced his steps. He wasn't aware of himself as he went down the side stairs and opened the hatch that communicated with the interior, moving his hands and feet mechanically while in his head he made his peace with God.
He soon entered and found himself face to face with Naga. Whatever Seiber had in mind, he only wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.
"Well," said Seiber through the PA system, "let's roll this out. The doors have just blocked, so there's no way out."
"OK, let's bite the fucking bullet," replied Virgil. "Just tell us what to do."
"This is the final test for Naga. Virgil, I want you to use your Beretta. Shoot to kill. No shying away. As if he were a regular objective. Naga, I want you to subdue him non-lethally."
"Wait," replied Virgil. "If it's just that, then there's no reason for it to be me instead of any low-rank merc!"
"No, Virgil. This test will simulate the exercise of capturing a target. I want to see that Naga can bring his natural assays under control to subdue him if he finds him. That's why I want to see him act against someone who he knows in advance, and with whom he has minimal emotional ties. Stick to the plan. As for you, Naga, if you kill Virgil, your quarantine will last two more weeks."
"That's what my life's worth, two weeks?" exclaimed Virgil.
Seiber outlined a gesture of distaste. It was evident that he also wanted to get it over with.
"Just do it. In three—" Ulrich put a Lucky Strike on his lips—
"Two—" Virgil pulled out his Beretta and unlocked the safety—
"One—" Naga closed his eyes—
"Go."
*****
A sparkling flare.
*****
And then he opened his eyes.
Ulrich had just intended to look for his Zippo when he let the cigarette slip from his mouth. Virgil lay motionless on the ground, his eyes rolled back and a thread of blood coming out of his nose. Naga was on his knees, trying to control several gag reflexes as he hyperventilated.
"What...what happened? Mr. Seiber, what happened?"
But Seiber turned silently around, going back through the walkway toward the stairs, leaving him to his fate for two more weeks. He knew that wouldn't ever be forgiven.
"Seiber! Seibeeeer!"
The whole greenhouse began to tremble. Plants shook hectically from side to side, while the crystals rattled furiously, like in a gale. Seiber, gripping the railing, stared with his imperturbable complexion at Naga, the epicenter of that chaos, pointing with his index finger at Virgil's inert chest, which suddenly started to shrink and expand repeatedly, in what appeared to be a cardiac massage. The earthquake stopped as inexplicably as it began as soon as Virgil came to, raising violently his trunk while drawing at once all the air he hadn't breathed while he had been in the other world. Naga stuck his palms on the floor and retched up whatever it was that remained in his empty stomach.
"Naga, are you all right?" was heard from the loudspeakers.
Naga raised his thumb to the sky even with his head still facing the ground, coughing up the last remains of gastric acid.
"And you, Virgil?"
Virgil, still wheezing, couldn't help but raise his arm and close his quavering fist—except for the middle finger.
That last gesture made the doors unlatch.
"Good," said Seiber with calculated coldness, adjusting his tie knot and turning around. "Naga, your radio codename will be Aleph from now on. Briefing's in two hours in my office. See you there."
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