Z's Creed

Invitation

Location: Unknown
Time: 4:00

When Slater reached the Eastern Bridge, the sky sank heavily to the earth, and the rain drummed cascades against the windshield. Violent wind gusts shook the cab and shrieked in the loose side windows. He reduced the speed, leaned over the wheel and stared out at the road sailing before him. His back was stiff from tension and sweat crawled in his armpits, while an awareness grew in him that no doubt it was already to late. X had insisted not only that Slater come alone, but that there would be no one at the house 4 pm. This was the date and time when a mercenary named Soren disappeared 10 years ago, unfortunately, he was never found or caught, from a house where he was holding hostages in a burglary, and Slater still didn't know how Soren had become invisible and had evaded the police surrounding the place.

Then the rain stopped, and the blurred landscape flattened down to a pale gleam on all sides. At the next exit, Slater turned off the highway and continued with the map that he received with the chit along a potholed road past dead country towns and clumps of weather worn, abandoned houses. Twice he misread the map and wound up in muddy tractor ruts. He turned, cursing, with spinning wheels, found his way back to the main road, and after another eternity with the pedal to the floor between deserted grass stretches and wide fallow fields, he was finally close to the place. He stopped beneath a couple of wind-blown, gnarled trees in what seemed to be a breeding ground for loneliness at the end of the earth. Behind him the woods drew a thin dark line on the horizon. To the right he glimpsed the white buildings of a distant farm, and far off, over black stripes of the earth and shining meadows, stretched a row of slender wind turbines, their blades rotating synchronously in the sky.

He turned off the engine. It was not quite 4. He had found the house, and most likely he had been spotted a few minutes earlier. There was no rush now, and 5 minutes of meditation for mental preparation could perhaps give Slater time to feel control of the situation and react calmly, unlike last time. Slater held his breath and counted slowly to 5 to quieten his pulse. Gusts of wind whispered against the cab, sighed through the treetops, and quivered the tall grass restlessly back and forth on the edge of the road. The sky was fog grey, with dark puffs of cloud over the land and a pink strip of light, like a long pencil stroke , between the dike and the sea. It would soon be dark, increasing his danger, and the possibility that X would escape. A bird of prey hung low, vibrating, over the field: a bad omen.

Slater got out and smacked the cab door shut with a dull metallic sound that was immediately carried off in the wind. Before him was an open, flagstone terrace with a sofa swing and 4 rain-soaked garden chairs not taken in for the winter and looking forlorn. The house itself lay on the outer edge of a growth of trees, half hidden behind high elms. It was well kept and freshly painted in vivid red-yellow ochre. The thatch roof had been replaced within the past year and the near-withered hollyhocks in faded colors told of a busy working couple's nostalgic dream of a peaceful country idyll. Slater cautiously approached, and took his time following the muddy, rutted driveway that went around the back of the house and continued on a narrow path in among the tree. The cab was parked far back behind the bushes so it could not be seen from the road.

Even though Slater was prepared to meet his quarry, he felt afraid. He forced himself to stand exposed in full sight only 3 meters from the living room's glinting grey windows. His nerves were on edge. A violent shudder ran through him. His mouth went dry, and his swords flew up instinctively in defense as the heavy flap of a flock of pheasants burst up close by him in a low arch and noisily vanished behind a screen of swinging hogweed. For a split second he caught and almost imperceptible movement of bulky shadow behind the glossy windowpanes. He was being watched. After an agonizing bait, the front door opened.