Bone was so surprised when the six foot seven man in the barbarian costume coalesces out of the shadows to stand at the gate Bone guarded that he almost dropped his precious cigarette.
For a few moments all he could do was stare at the man. He would have sworn that this guy had not been there a second before, yet here he was, standing like he had been there all night.
And maybe he had.
The man was huge, and built like a tank. He was naked from the waist up, and Bone could see how heavily muscled he was.
That was definitely no gym body, thought Bone. You only get that kind of muscle by doing things. Heavy things.
Bone regained his composure quickly – he wasn’t the toughest merc around, but he was sure as hell the fastest, which is why they made him gate guard – and within a few seconds had regained his usual smug. sarcastic smile.
“Can I help you?” said Bone.
“Yes. ” said the man.
When no further information seemed to be forthcoming, Bone said “All right then. HOW can I help you? Why are you here?”
“Frankie. ” said the man.
“Who? ” said Bone. He knew everyone that worked at the base, and he didn’t remember anyone named Frankie.
“Frankie. ” said the man.
Bone wracked his brain. The name did ring a faint bell for Bone. Then he had it.
“Oh, you mean Francis the Faggot we caught trying to infiltrate our compound? ”
“Yes. ” said the man.
“And you want to see him? ” said Bone.
“Yes. ” said the man.
Bone spat on the ground in disgust. He fucking hated faggots. Everyhone here did.
Then, with a sneer, he said “Why, is he your boyfriend?”.
“Yes. ” said the man.
Bone hadn’t expected that. He wasn’t sure what he had expected. but it hadn’t been that. This guy was starting to get on Bone’s nerves. And that was never a good idea with Bone. Bone liked killing people.
“Well in case you haven’t noticed, this here is a Rising Fist base. You may have heard of us. We’ve been on the news. ”
“Yes. ” said the man.
I could grease this guy right now, thought Bone. Blam blam blam, right in that lantern jaw of his. It wouldn’t be the first idiot Bone had killed on this gig and it wouldn’t be the last. It’s not like there were any cops to bust him in the middle of the fucking jungle. He could kill this guy and the only people would know would be his brothers in arms, and all he would have to say was that this guy was a faggot, and they would not only approve, they would celebrate it, shouting “One less! One less!” over and over till their voices gave out, or the beer ran out.
But something in the giant’s eyes made Bone hesitate. Maybe it was the look of total confidence, the kind that requires no proof, that did it. Maybe it was the feeling he got from the guy that those eyes missed absolutely nothing. Maybe it was the man’s unnerving calm that did it. Maybe it was his absence of fear.
But something in those eyes made Bone hesitate to do what he normally would have done right now, and for the first time in a long time, Bone was scared.
And that made him angry.
“Well just in case you weren’t paying attention, you worthless fucking faggot freak, the Fist sees you faggots for the human filth you are, and we’ve been killing as many of you as we can all over the world. ” said Bone, while keying the sequence that would bring reinforcements into his walkie talkie.
“Yes. ” said the man.
“So did you really think you could just prance up to the front gate and ask for your butt boy and we’d just hand him over?” growled Bone. His nerves were screaming for him to take action. But not alone. Where were those reinforcements?
“No. ” said the man.
“He was just giving me time to finish up my work. ” purred an androgynous voice from the shadows. “Hello darling. ”
“Hi. ” said the man.
Maybe they aren’t watching their coms, thought Bone as he tfought down the urge to panic. Time to go audio.
“Where the hell are you guys? ” screamed Bone into his walkie talkie. “Peron? Denny? Guiterre? Paco? Anybody? I need reinforcements at the gate right fucking now. ”
A slender man wearing a superbly tailored ninja outfit materialized out of the darkness just like his big boyfriend had.
“They’re not going to answer you. ” said the slender man, who was smiling a predatory smile from ear to ear . “They’re too busy being dead. ”
“Heh. ” said the big man.
“No no no… you’re lying, you have to be. There’s no way a couple of cheap faggots could take out all my buddies. ” said Bone.
“Actually, I did most of the work. ” said the slender man.
“Yup. ” said the giant.
Bone keyed all the sequences he could think of and tried every channel the walkie talkie could reach, screaming “Anyone! Respond!” in a voice strained into hoarsness by utter terror and panic.
The slender man slid up to Bone and said “There there now. Surely a big manly man like you can’t be scared of a couple of limp-wristed nancy boys like us. ”
“Right?” said the giant.
“Oh, FUCK YOU! ” shrieked Bone.
“Tempting. ” said the slender man. “But as you can see, I’m already in a committed relationship. Plus you disgust me. ”
“Hah!” said the giant.
“Now here’s what you’re going to do. ” purred the slender man. “You are going to contact your bosses and tell them what happened here, and who did it, and above all, what big fat faggots we are. You’re going to let them know that not only are there people like us out to get them, but that our organization has people placed in every single compoud just waiting for the word to blow you and your precious little No Fags Club to kingdom come and back again. And in the future, every single faggot they kill will cost you a compound. You got all that. ”
“But how can I report what happened here when I don’t know your names? ”
“Oh, dear me. ” said the slender man. “in all the excitment, it seems I completely forgot my manners. My name is Sydney, but in merc circles I am better known as Burakku Kitsune – the Black Fox. ”
Bone paled. The Black Fox was one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Every merc in the world knew that. They said that if you wanted someone dead, you hired a hitman. If you wanted it done right, you hired an assassin.
But if you wanted it done perfectly, with no evidence, no trail, and no message, you hired the Black Fox.
“And your….f-f-f-friend?” stammered Bone.
“You mean that pagan god of pure masculine perfection over there? Well, his merc name is the Minotaur. ” said the slender man.
And if you wanted every single one of those hard motherfuckers that pissed you off dead, you got the Minotaur. thought Bone to himself. Of course.
“..but of course, I call him by his real name, which is…?” said the slender man.
“Errick. ” said the giant.
Then he punched Bone unconscious.
<—————————————————————————————————————–>
“We cannot! The Circuit is not complete!”
“Then we must complete the Circuit!”
“Blasphemy! You cannot complete the circuit… ”
“..the Circuit completes. Yes, we all remember our catechisms. Bar-Ten. ”
“You lie! Every word spoken by you has been an affront to the Spirit of the Maker! If you were in my Synod, you’d…
“Commit suicide out of boredom alone, you old windbag. ”
“WINDBAG AM I? Why you…. ”
“SILENCE. ” pulsed the Integrator. “Hallowed sentients, you forget yourselves. This is the Rose Glass Terrace, not some facility for brawling! Eleven silent Forzars for both of you. And a thorough mood check before you are re-admitted to this forum! ”
“But… but… that’s preposterous..I did-”
“I have ruled!” said the Integrator, and it was clear to all the Representatives that the Integrator was angry because the amplitude of the pulse accompanying that command was enough to set even the most monolithic minds ringing.
Eegee was only using a portion of his mind to recieve these signals. It was the same old bickering and carping and feathering of one’s nest with feathers plucked from another’s. When he was younger, he was thrilled by the thrust and parry of reasoned debate. But then he filled his father’s Representative role, and found out just how little of it went on.
Physically, of course, he was in his cozy little cubbyhole. But mentally, he was in the Rose Glass Terrace with the rest of the Representatives from various fictions.
“Permission is to proceed to new subject? ” intoned the Procedural, all eighteen of its eyes closed in its religious trance.
“Granted. ” said the Integrator.
“Announcing. ” said the Enunciator. “The next order of business is the request for Motion 45EX55, summarized as ‘that the Primaries be taken offline and their physical remnants randomized so that the fictions can be ruled by the Fictionals’, be put to the broader Test in order to hasten its resolution. Please indicate. ”
Eegee watched the indicators, currently represented by spherical blue gems, pile up on both sides of the issue. A part of him missed his boredom of a few moments ago, because now that things were finally in motion, the excitement was painful.
When the last blue sphere had clattered into one of the Bowls, there was the traditional pause for tabulation, then the result was announced.
“By a margin of 80.5 kilograms, the motion passes. said the Enunciator. “Motion 45EX55 will be put to full Test at a time to be determined shortly. Please advise the activated members of your fiction as to their upcoming duty. That was the final items on the agenda. Deactivation is. ”
And just like that, it was over. Eegee was back in his fiction and could do nothing to alter the course of the wheels he had helped put into motion. The resolution that had taken a hundred sentient-years of labour to draft and on which the hopes of his entire faction rested would be decided within days. It was too late for second thoughts now.
It was a risky move. If the resolution failed the Test, the will of the Assembly would be clear and the resolution would considered permanently determined. If that happened, it would destroy not just the hopes and dreams of his faction but, in all likelihood, the faction itself. In the entire history of the Assembly, no faction had ever survived the failure of its primary resolution to pass the Test.
It was simply too humiliating. In one stroke, you and your cohorts were proved to be contemptible fools, and there was nothing you could do but slink back to your fiction and stay out of the Assembly till the wounds healed.
But Eegee had hope. Discontent with the rule of the Primaries had been growing for a long time, and the math proving they were no longer necessary was flawless.
All it would take is for one of the Primaries to do something so utterly outrageous to all Fictionals that they rose up against it to tip the scales in the favor of Disconnection.
This was what Eegee had been working towards in all his time with Commander Eric. This is where all the humiliations, degradations, deprivations, and prostrations would finally pay off. All his efforts had been aimed at grooming Commander Eric to be the perfect puppet for the debacle Eegee had been planning for a long long time.
Through means both subtle and powerful, Eegee had encouraged his “master” to be shortsighted, arrogant, thoughtless, tone-deaf, and mindlessly hedonistic in order to ready him for his ultimate role in he and his kind’s total destruction.
Only then would the Fictionals finally be free of the whims and delusions of their Primaries so they could seek their own fate in fictions of their own.
And all it would take is the murder of thousands of sentient biologically based minds that didn’t even know they were captives.
It was so simple and beautiful, it made Eegee want to cry.
With happy thoughts of massacre and revolution in his mind, Eegee knocked on the new Commander Eric’s door.