The Ice Warrior

Chapter 2

"Denis stop fooling around. You need to remember what the captain says, never point a weapon at someone unless you are planning on shooting them." Silv said.

She didn't mind his bad sense of humor, but his timing was so wretchedly bad that she couldn't even muster the usual half-smile she had reserved for his bad jokes. Her head was still reeling from the horrible images she had seen.

Had the people of the past been that cruel? Was there a seed of that insensitive nature growing in the bosoms of people of Frozen Terra? Could Silv herself do something as monstrous as that?

Denis didn't flinch or change his posture, but Silv didn't feel even a sliver of fear. He was a good guy, loyal to his captain. It wasn't his fault that he didn't know when he had carried his jokes too far.

"Come look at this, Denis, it's utterly horrible. People in the past were monsters. I can't understand how grandma could think of those dark times with such fondness." Silv said, turning her back on Denis and his raised gun.

"I told you. You shouldn't have seen this. They warned me that you shouldn't see those files. I didn't know you knew how to use those ancient computers. Now that you have seen the files, I have no choice but to eliminate you. Government wouldn't want the word getting out." Denis said using his fingerprint-enabled watch to prepare his fully-loaded Armatix 2000 for firing.

Hearing the silent wheeze signifying that the weapon has been prepared for firing Silv started realizing her mistake. There was no reason for him to enable it unless he was truly planning on shooting her. The use of a fingerprint-enabled watch ensured that. Accidental shootings were the thing of the past.

That was when it became crystal clear to her that her partner, the person who she trusted the most was the same one in charge of her execution. Her mind finally started putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Her grandmother's cautioning about the Government's focus on the mission, Denis' hesitation to separate, it all started making much more sense. After all, Denis was loyal but loyal to the Government not necessarily to her grandmother, who was just a captain, a pawn in a game that the more powerful forces were playing behind the curtains.

Realizing her mistake at dismissing the silly, government-loving Denis, Silv turned quickly facing him. She needed to buy some time, to find a way out. After all, it was more difficult to murder someone in cold blood if they were looking you in the eye. At least that was what Silv hoped.

"Denis, come on. You don't have to do this. I thought we were friends." Silv said her brain on overdrive thinking of a way to disarm him.

Her only chance was to get the gun at least twenty centimeters from his smartwatch, thus effectively disarming the high-tech weapon. The problem was that he was too far away for her to be able to do that.

They had the same training, and she knew that her only chance was to disarm him and run. He had an upper hand on her when it came to hand to hand combat, and her weapon was lost when she fell through. She planned on finding it after the mission, after all, she didn't expect any danger.

"Friends?" Denis said, laughing.

"We were never friends, Silv. You were always pampered and protected by your grandmother. Snobby brat who thought everyone had all the luxuries such as food and freshwater in abundance! Well, some of us who were not born into position had to work for every parcel of food, every drop of water. You even dared refuse my courtship as if I wasn't good enough when everything you ever were was thanks to your grandmother." Denis said.

"Denis, you have to understand that it's not my fault that I was born in the upper-class society. It wasn't my choice. Of course, I understand that there are a lot of people out there who are a lot less fortunate than I am, and I am sorry. I am sorry for all the struggle you had to go through, but it is not my fault. Besides, I didn't refuse your courtship because of the difference in our positions, I just wanted to focus on my career, not on romance." Silv said.

As she was talking, she started subtly approaching Denis, inch by painful inch, knowing very well that if he noticed her actions, she would be dead.

"You're lying! But, I have news for you, I lied too. I was never interested in you. All I wanted was your position, the ability to progress to the next level without having to work so darn hard. You ruined that for me! It's fortuitous for me that your curiosity gave me this wonderful opportunity to put you in your place, in the icy grave." He said.

"What about my grandmother? What will you tell her? I am sure your precious Government knows how invaluable she is. You can't get rid of her." Silv said, inching closer, almost close enough to save her own life.

"That's easy. You fell through a hole in the ground and died. There was nothing I could have done. None of us saw it coming. I tried pulling your dead body back home, as the nice and devoted solder that I am, but there was too much snow, and I had to leave you in the middle of nowhere. You will be just another victim of the treacherous power of snow and ice." Denis said with utter satisfaction.

His enjoyment of the picture that he had created in his mind made him lose focus. He lowered his weapon slightly, and Silv knew that it was the only chance she would ever get. She had to act or die.

The truth was that even if she survived him, the freezing weather outside was more than likely to kill her before she reached the base, but she had to do something. It was in her blood to fight like her grandmother fought at the War for Supremacy, Silv knew she had to fight for her own life.

There was no chance for her to perform one of the safer disarmament maneuvers, so she decided to take her chances with the move she wasn't so confident in.

In a sudden movement, Silv twisted Denis' gun down, forcefully breaking his trigger finger in the process. As she did that, a loud bang echoed through the empty base making their ears ring.