Something Easy

JR had only been gone for a few minutes when there was a knock on the front door. Dev, Ian and Ed all looked at one-another for a few seconds before Ed finally got up and walked to the front door, Ian and Dev close behind. There was no way that Others would still bother them – at least none of them thought so, and Ed opened the door without first looking through the window.

            “Yeah?” Ed asked, studying the appearance of the person on the other side of the door. The man wore casual clothing; an American baseball cap, sneakers and jeans. No firearm. No melee weapon. Ed heard Dev’s disappointed sigh and felt his presence dissipate as he went back to the chessboard.

            The man on the other side of the door peered inside at Ian and Ed, then cleared his throat and pulled an envelope out of his pocket. “This is for you,” he said as Ed retrieved the envelope.

            Ed looked the man straight in the eyes as he closed the door without saying goodbye. Ian merely looked at Ed, then returned to the couch, sat down, and watched Ed open the letter and read it. Devon did not even budge from his seat at the chessboard as Ed skimmed the two little pages in the envelope.

            “We have to retrieve an unmarked package from some sawmill just outside of Johannesburg,” Ed said, sounding even more disappointed than Dev looked. “They’re making us play errand boys!”

            “Assholes,” Dev remarked and made his move at last, checking Ed’s King.

            “If that’s what they want us to do, that’s what we will be doing,” Ian replied and began sharpening his blades again.

            “It also says we will be compensated in terms of money and rewards.”

            “That’s odd.”

            “Indeed,” Ian said, placing his swords into their sheathes and laying them down on the couch next to him. “What else?”

            Ed sat down at the kitchen counter, where Ian and Dev still had a good view of him, then continued to read the letter.

            “We are to retrieve an unmarked package… Johannesburg… will be well compensated for our time and effort…stay discreet…silenced and non-lethal weapons…no fatalities…and our own vehicles. It says nothing about new living arrangements, or backup.” Ed said and threw the letter onto the counter that split the living room from the kitchen.

            “It’s basically a training mission, then?” Devon asked as he got up and walked over to Ed, leaned on the counter and looked at the letter without touching it.

            “Can’t be. It mentioned being discreet and non-lethal weapons,” Ian replied, then looked over at Dev and Ed, who were both staring at him. “Which means this is much closer to the last few assignments we have done.”

            “Suppose so…” Devon said and looked back down at the letter. “We can use our own vehicles.”

            “We’ll use my car then,” Ed said matter-of-factly.

            “That’ll be the best option,” Ian agreed. “Now come on. Let’s get ready and go to scout the place tonight. We’ll hit them on Friday. Or have we been given a time restriction?”

            “Not that I’ve read,” Ed replied and headed upstairs before he could be asked something else.

Once back in his room, Ed sighed and walked over to his desk and popped his contacts out of his eyes. Placing them back in their container, he put on his glasses, which doubled as basic tactical units, though they weren’t as strong as the actual tactical HUD glasses they usually used for assignments.

            He then moved over to his closet to put some decent clothing on, grabbed his bow and newly fletched arrows and headed downstairs where Ian and Dev were waiting.

            Devon’s heavily modified magnum was able to be taken apart and equipped with a lot of different scopes, barrels and magazines. For tonight’s recon he had it loaded with non-lethal darts, a custom silencer and no scope. In addition to that, his broadsword had been slung over his back. Ian’s load-out consisted of only his swords and a silenced pistol, and Ed only had his bow and arrows, since he felt no need for his pistols on a simple recon and scouting assignment.

They stopped in the parking lot of a pub about a kilometer away from the sawmill, and decided to cover the rest of the distance on foot.

            Resistance was few and far between, and most of the time all three of them could slip by unnoticed without having to worry about a possible spotting by any random patrol. The bigger problem was how they would get inside without notifying the mercenaries who stood on their makeshift vantage points on the roof of the building.

            Most of the mercenaries wore black outfits with Kevlar jackets, and had standard issue military weapons, most of which had suppressors – which meant that if something ever did go wrong, they would be able to have a firefight without any of the other patrols ever knowing what had happened. Not that they had the convenience of even considering that, seeing as the letter demanded no fatalities.

Ed scouted ahead while Devon stayed behind and kept track of the various patrolling guards on the outside, and Ian moved around the building to look for ways to enter. All three managed to return in less than a half hour to their start-point. Together, they headed back to the car and drove off casually.

Back home, JR was in the living room watching TV, though as soon as the three of them came into the kitchen through the garage door, JR jumped up and went to greet them.

            “Hey,” he said and shook Ed’s hand, nodded at Ian, and simply ignored Devon, which the other male took as nothing. “Was it successful?”

            “Was what successful?” Ian asked as he remembered that none of them had told JR where they had gone off to.

            JR gave them all a quick glance and then smiled, “Oh, I just thought that you were all out on assignment and all, since you are all equipped with your favourite weapons…”

            “It was,” Ed said and moved past the lot of them and headed upstairs.

The rest of the night was uneventful, as Ian lay in his bed unable to fall asleep. He knew Ed would be in his room and not on the deck, so he didn’t bother to go out. Devon was already fast asleep when the clock struck 12. Ian could hear JR starting his car and driving off. He wondered where JR had gone to this time, but shook the thought off as he figured it had been how JR coped with everything that had been going on lately.