Something Revealed

By
  “Put this on” said Ian as they walked to the trunk of his car.
  “What for?” asked Ed as he eyed the army helmet suspiciously.
  “Coz if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do this right,” answered Ian. He had already donned his helmet, hooked in his balaclava that was patterned with a dragon snout, and put on yellow rimless sunglasses.
  “Do these still work?” Ed asked as he hooked his balaclava, pattered with a duck’s bill, and put on his sunglasses over his regular spectacles.
  “They should, I’ve been keeping the servers alive. Secretly,”
            Ian pressed a button on the side of the sunglasses and they became darker as they booted up. They were active combat glasses that gave the user important heads up information.
  “Let’s go,” said Ian and he headed to the door, a pistol in one hand and a sword, held in reverse, in the other.
            Ed followed with an arrow nocked and half drawn. Ian tried the door, it was unlocked. They shared a meaningful glance before entering, keeping their weapons ready. The house was a dump. It was in the middle of nowhere, the roof appeared to be caving in and the walls weren’t far from following.
            All along the floor there were empty packets of who-knows-what. They proceeded slowly to the back of the house where they found a closed door. The two of them stacked up, readied and entered quickly. The force with which they opened the door sent litter flying. Behind the desk, that was just as dirty as the floor, was an impaled man no older than the two of them.
  “It wasn’t him,” said Ian, deflated.
  “Maybe he decided to off himself after yesterday’s little stunt?” suggested Ed hopefully, though he knew it was a fools hope.
  “It wasn’t him,” Ian repeated and walked to the other side of the desk, “check this,” he said and turned the laptop with his sword.
  “He was trying to hack your email account,”
  “Yeah, futile endeavour,”
            Just then a woman entered the room, looked at the dead body, looked at the two friends and ran out screaming.
  “That’s why I said we needed the mask,” said Ian as they rushed out after her.
            She was already running down the street, away from them, so they got into Ian’s car and drove off. Luckily Ian had replaced his number plates with fake ones before they left.
  “Well,” said Ed, taking off his helmet, “at least we know that he was working for the Others,”
  “Yeah, but we did have our suspicions,”
 
  “Hey, buddies,” JR greeted as Ed and Ian entered the house.
  “Hey, dude,” Ian greeted, then noticed Danny by the island, “Hey beautiful,”
  “Sit, both of you,” she said in a flat tone.
  “Oh dear,” said Ed. The two of them moved to the seats opposite Danny.
  “Tell me this isn’t true,” she said and threw the iPad across the island.
Ed cringed as it scrapped along, though he was glad for the protective back cover. They looked at the pdf she had opened on it, it was an image of a burning village and mutilated corpses.
  “North Africa,” said Ian.
  “So it is true?”
  “Man,” said JR, “you guys are secret agents and you didn’t tell me?”
  “Not now, JR,” said Danny angrily. “Why?” she asked the two by the island.
  “In Ian’s defence, he never really-” started Ed.
  “I want to hear it from him,”
  “It was our last assignment,” Ian started in an emotionless tone, all the while staring at the picture. “It was supposed to be simple. Get in, kill the dictator, make sure our guy ascends and restore order. Only, things in the North can go south quickly.
  “Ed took the shot, killed the dictator, but they saw the flash, somehow they saw the flash. I told Devon to go back to the village and if I wasn’t back with Ed by nightfall, to call for help. They caught both of us and for three days they tortured us,”
  “The scars on your back?” she asked, though she knew the answer.
  “Bladed whip, Ed’s got similar scars. On the fourth day Dev rescued us, with help from the villagers. Ed and I were pretty out of it, but I do remember the villagers armed with black market weapons, and Dev telling us the agency was shot to hell. The Others had taken us out.
  “We were held in an underground room, and when the new dictator came with the old dictator’s men the villagers wouldn’t give us up. Dev was the only one amongst us that was battle ready. I begged him to help them, I begged him to help us up, to arm us so that we might help the villagers. But he wouldn’t.
  “He said if we stepped out there, we’d be dead just like the town. At the time I hated him for it, but later I learnt to understand how much it had eaten away at him to do that.
  “It was hours before they had finished burning, raping and killing every man, woman and child in the village, then they left. Dev wouldn’t let us do anything until the next day. He actually put us under. The next morning we headed to the evac site, took the VTOL and left.”
  “So you didn’t kill them?” asked JR, “That’s go-”
  “Not now, JR,” said Ian. “We didn’t kill them, but we caused their deaths. They died for us and I haven’t had one peaceful night of sleep since,”
            They were all silent for a while. Danny just stared at Ed and Ian with her two coloured eyes. Ed remembered thinking of all the times women had given him the evil eye and came to the conclusion that Danny was a lot better at it.
  “I need time to process this,” she said and stalked off to the garage door.
  “Danny,” started Ian.
  “No, don’t, just, don’t,” she said and left.
            Again silence fell among them. They heard Danny speed of and then neither of them said a word. As if by silent decree, Ed walked over to the cupboard next to the fridge and produced a bottle of tequila. JR moved closer and Ian got them all whiskey glasses. If they were going to do this, they were going to do it right.
  “So, that’s the first woman that’s stormed out which you actually slept with,” said Ed as he poured the tequila, “well, in a long time anyway,”
  “Yeah,” Ian said and picked up his glass. He contemplated the clear liquid for a moment, “I need to clear my head,” he said, getting up and heading over to the garage.
  “Then there were two,” said JR, taking a big sip from his glass. “Why didn’t you guys ever mention this to me? I tell you everything,”
  “You tell Ian everything,”
  “Well, yeah, he’s my best buddy,”
  “And that’s why he didn’t tell you. The fewer people who knew, the better,” said Ed, swirling the clear liquid in his glass, he hadn’t taken a sip yet.
  “You think she’s gone for good?”
  “I doubt Ian’s gonna be that lucky,”
  “Don’t you mean unlucky?”
  “No. If she stays away, she’ll be out of danger. But they love each other, she’ll be back by tonight, or he’ll go get her. He’s got a damn guitar in his car,”
  “So he’s not gonna be back tonight?”
            Ed didn’t answer, instead he just stared at his untouched glass. JR had already drained his.
  “I need to drive,” Ed said. He got up from his chair, headed to the garage, got in his car and drove off. It was still early, only a few minutes past one in the afternoon.
            He didn’t really have a destination in mind but he found himself driving towards Aaliyah’s place.

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