Chapter 216: Silly Things (1/2)
Rakna smiled bitterly and erased the theatrical display of blood. There was no point in even trying to scare her. This probably wouldn't even work on anyone he knew. Perhaps except Allan who'd just tell him something like 'Sure. If you don't want to, don't. Blood is icky anyway.'
He sighed and changed his sitting position with one knee up and his arm resting on it. Ceres was patiently watching and waiting for him to continue.
”If every story must start somewhere, then this is the appropriate place,” he suddenly said and all of the landscape around them faded away apart from the Céraiste field. Instead, the two of them found themselves inside a house with their bodies being oddly transparent.
”Illegal traffic across China. Three different spots altogether that are always connected by one sort of transit or another.”
Ceres trembled as she suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice.
She looked around and her eyes fell on the figure of an elderly but powerful-looking man. He was standing in front of a large digital screen where a map was displayed, showing routes, pictures, and written records. She also spotted a young boy at his side, looking at the map.
”Out with it, old man,” the boy spoke with a terrifyingly callous voice. It was filled with suppressed hatred and impatience. Listening to him felt like blades scraping your skin. ”Is this related to Flood and what are they trafficking exactly?”
”All clues point to Flood's involvement,” the older man responded with a huff. ”As for the nature of the traffic, it's only a conjecture, but I'd say liquid Eion of high purity. I have noticed fluctuations in the supply worldwide.”
The young Rakna frowned heavily. ”Where the fuck are they getting it from?”
”Where every criminal gets their stuff; the black market. When humans want something, you can be sure that law doesn't mean crap to them,” the old man snickered. ”Well, it would have if I was still at the reigns of Aurora. Haze and Jin are getting sloppy but I can't blame them. I was the main deterrent force. That's why I started to hunt Flood down and found you along the way.”
”…you said three sites, where do we start?” The boy inquired.
”I'll take the two that are closest to each other. You take the last one. Since you'll be alone on this one, be careful. I won't be close to you to save your skin and Allegro isn't done yet.”
”Zip it, old man. I don't need your saving.”
”We'll see. If they have about two hundred men combined in my two sites, I should be able to clean them up and join you in about two hours with the jet if it's necessary.”
Ceres blinked in shock as she heard a human say he could take out two hostile positions with an average of a hundred guards within two hours. It was also the same for the young Rakna shown in the memory before her. How could he confidently target something like that on his own?
”I understand who that man is… but you as well… were you really human?” She couldn't help but ask and the present Rakna snorted.
”We were. But the old man could become superhuman at the slightest intake of Eion while I also used serums developed by him to temporarily increase my physique,” he replied. ”But more than that, we had skills and resources. That was more than enough.”
Ceres was silent for a moment. ”How old were you during this… operation?”
”13? 14? I'm not sure. My memories of that period are fuzzy,” Rakna admitted with a shrug and pointed at the images. ”Focus. It's moving on.”
She did as he said and quietly watched as the pair left the house on bikes and headed to a hidden and remote abandoned factory that they clearly used as their private hangar. There were rows of vehicles inside and amongst them, flying contraptions of high quality were parked.
”How-”
”Money, lots of money and connections,” Rakna answered before she could finish. ”My uncle would then go and build or improve equipment on his own. He told me that he had had decades of free time to steadily bulk up his armory and equipment long before I met him.”
As he spoke, the memories, or rather the dream he was artificially making, forwarded to a section where he was heading to his objective in a black jet, during the night and alone. After a while, the auto-pilot kicked in and the aircraft slowed down. The bottom thrusters were triggered and the ones at the back were turned off for a swift but soft vertical landing in a clearing.
Rakna exited it dressed in a Kevlar and metal-plated outfit that was obviously leagues below the quality provided by Allegro. He walked to the back of the jet and opened a compartment from which he grabbed a pair of odd knives with spear-shaped blades and a thick handle. He whirled them and attached them to his belt.