[The Gunslingers, Book II, Chapter 19] [Herald] “Shush little bird, don’t you cry…,” Raen sang softly as he stroked the egg gently, “…Papa’s gonna slash the bad guy’s throat, and if there’s more than one, Mama’s gonna bash his head with a big ol’ gun.” “Oh, you are just a natural born father,” said Moeth. “Tell it stories about the giant feathered Windigo predator that steals children right out of their nests and carries them off to be eaten, that should get the egg to sleep peacefully.” “At least I’m not trying to pretend it doesn’t exist,” said Raen. “It doesn’t exist, get that through your head,” said Moeth. “First Egg goes to the Temple and you can’t stop it, all you’re doing is hurting yourself.” “I won’t let them have it,” said Raen. “Raen, don’t make me say it,” said Moeth. “I’m not giving them this egg,” insisted Raen. “Raen, you will or I will hunt you myself,” said Moeth. “I’m giving all my eggs to the Temple until every Gunslinger is dead.” Raen glared at Moeth, this wasn’t their first fight and it wouldn’t be the last, but the fights were getting worse; she had never threatened him before. He looked at the egg and his face softened, there had to be a way, he just couldn’t give up this egg—she was so beautiful. Raen knew it was a girl; the egg was too small to be a boy. “I’ll find a way, my darling egg,” whispered Raen. “We have other issues to deal with,” said Moeth trying to change the subject and distract him. “What?” “Do you have any idea how much it will cost to fix these ships?” said Moeth. “Do you know what they do to Raven’s that aren’t profitable? They could put a contract on us for destroying this much equipment, I hope you can swim in concrete shoes.” “Can’t be that much,” argued Rain. “Millions!” replied Moeth. “We just need to earn the money then,” said Raen. “How are you going to earn millions before Mother Raven finds out and comes for you?” asked Moeth. “She’ll come for you first, I’m just a Zoomie,” said Raen grinning. “Very funny,” said Moeth. “Do you have a plan?” “Yea, can you download the list of outstanding contracts available on Pyra?” asked Raen. “That’s brilliant! How can you be so dumb one moment,” Moeth glanced at the egg Raen was cuddling, “and so smart the next.” Raen curled up around the egg and put a hand over it protectively. “Wake me when we get there, I’m tired.” “You’re tired?” said Moeth. “I’m the one that just dropped a two pound egg.” *** Wes’s wrist implant woke him at four in the morning and he rolled off the couch in his office and stretched. The building was quiet and other than a single light on in the window it was dark, and a bit chilly, winter wasn’t far away. The boxes Nick had brought full of pending permits and such were finally lined up neatly against the walls - that was a blessing, Wes was tired of climbing over boxes. Wes grabbed a flashlight, most of the lights in the interior of the building weren’t working yet, but the Judge had promised to get Wes a small budget to work with so he could get repairs started. The stairs to the second floor were an old creaking narrow passage leading up from the office; they were only using two floors so far, the first for business and the second for living quarters. Wes slept just as often in his office as the room Urai had assigned him. Wes liked to study and his office was one of the only rooms that had a working light. Wes climbed the stairs, the hall was quiet, but not entirely dark, a light was coming from under Thor’s door. Odd, thought Wes, there are no working lights up here. He pushed the door open, Thor was asleep, but an oil lantern flickered on a table next to his cot. Wes quietly stepped into the room and looked around, comic books were scattered on the floor and bed. Wes picked up one of the comic books and looked at the cover; The Adventures of Thor, God of Thunder. He picked up another of the comic books, also The Adventures of Thor. Wes picked up several more, every one of the comic books were The Adventures of Thor. Wes had a nagging feeling and laid the comic books down and placed his arm next to the sleeping boy so his wrist implant could scan Thor’s wrist implant. The implant read the basic public information available; name, age, species, and place of birth. Wes looked at the name on the readout and grinned Well now, this explains a lot, thought Wes, I might lie about my name too if I had his name. The super hero Thor must have been his idol since he was little, and being that he is so big now - yea, makes sense. Wes quietly left the room and pulled the door shut behind him. I won’t ever tell anyone his real name, at least until he is ready to trust the team and tell us himself. Wes walked past Nick’s room and down to the end of the hall where Urai’s room was. He stopped and checked the time; this was going to be so much fun. Wes beat on Urai’s door as hard as he could and then turned and walked back down the hall beating on Nick and Thor’s doors. He shouted the whole time at the top of his voice. “Let’s go! Move it! Move it!” Wes stopped at the end of the hall and turned around. “The day’s half over, do you plan on sleeping all day!” Urai nearly flew out of his room and Nick and Thor opened their doors at nearly the same time and both came out holding chairs over their heads ready to hit someone. Wes laughed, turned around and started back down the stairs. “Pants up and shoes on!” shouted Wes. “Let’s go.” Wes was waiting downstairs when his three deputies thundered down the old wooden stairs wondering what was going on. Nick saw it first and stopped in this tracks and stared. “These are yours,” said Wes pointing at four standard issue Gunslinger Field Packs.” Three of the packs had a long rifle leaning up against them. “Go ahead, you each get one,” said Wes. Wes gave them a few minutes to fondle over the rifles, even Urai seemed in awe of his rifle and it looked like Nick was going to kiss his. Thor was more practical with his rifle, inspecting it carefully and sticking his eye over the end of the barrel and looking down; Wes was glad he had chosen not to load the rifles. Wes grabbed his pack and threw it over his back and headed for the door, “Let’s go, packs on, we got a busy day.” The door jingled and Wes was outside before they could complain. A moment later Thor came outside, his pack over his back and looking perfectly comfortable. Nick was struggling hard not to be shown up by Thor and Urai came out last staggering under the weight of his pack. “What’s in these?” asked Urai. “Your ammunition, of course,” said Wes. “Okay, now keep up.” Wes jumped into a slow run; there was no sense in breaking his deputies the first day. His muscles were stiff, too many months of no exercise had taken it’s toll on his body. Thor and Nick kept up fairly well, never complaining and Urai never stopped complaining. Urai stopped running after the second block and Wes turned around and jogged in place. “How old are you Urai?” asked Wes. “Twenty-six,” Urai said panting heavily. “How long you been with the Justice Office?” asked Wes. “Since I was sixteen, what’s that got to do with anything?” Urai was getting a bad feeling about this. “Far as I’m concerned, you’ve taken the oath a long time ago,” said Wes. “Do you know what we do with Cadets that quit?” Urai just stared at Wes and turned pale; the Gunslingers eyes had gone to that dead empty glaze that meant Urai was in trouble. “Drop the pack and rifle on the ground,” said Wes. “I won’t start hunting you until later today; you get a nice head start.” “You can’t do that?” said Urai shaking. Wes turned and started jogging again. “Come on,” shouted Thor. “You can do this, we’ll help you.” “Yea,” said Nick running back and grabbing Urai’s arm. “Just keep your feet moving.” Wes kept the pace slow and didn’t turn around to see how his ‘Merits’ were doing, they would survive or die on their own, it was the Gunslinger way. Wes chose a route that wound through the dark city streets and a few back streets; he wanted to see what happened in the early morning hours as much as he wanted to run. Urai didn’t complain further but he didn’t look all that great either and by the time Wes led them onto the western beach just south of the docks, Urai was being mostly carried by Thor. Wes stopped and dropped his pack, then started stripping off his clothing. A man stood up from where he was sitting on an old beach chair and walked over; the man brought his chair and plopped down next to Wes’s gear; Wes handed the man several Imperial coins and looked back at his deputies. “What are you three waiting for?” Wes shouted. Thor and Nick shrugged and stripped off their gear and tossed it down next to Wes’s. Urai did the same, glad to be rid of the heavy field pack. Wes headed for the waves and dived into the ocean; Nick and Thor looked less than pleased. Urai limped past them and fell into the surf. Urai was a native Pyran and as such, an amphibian. The water revived him instantly and he nimbly dived under the waves and caught up with Wes and swam in circles around him; Wes allowed him the little show of rebellion. Thor and Nick unhappily followed into the ocean and swam out to where Wes was waiting. Wes didn’t say a word, turned, and continued to swim away from the island. Thor and Nick tread water weakly and looked at each other. “You can do it,” said Urai. “I won’t let you drown; we’re a team, right?” Wes only swam out a quarter mile before turning around and heading back towards the beach. Urai swam back and forth between Thor and Nick holding them up to give them each a chance to catch their breaths; their arms and legs felt like lead. Wes swam past them without a word, his own arms and legs were burning as well; too little exercise since his surgery had left him weak, but he wasn’t about to show it. He wondered if the Marshall had ever felt tired when he was leading the cadets on a brutal run up and down the mountains. The man guarding the equipment was waiting on the beach and Wes dressed and waited for his team to catch up. Thor and Nick dragged themselves out of the water and collapsed. “No time for rest,” shouted Wes. “Get dressed and grab your rifles, time for range practice.” The promise of shooting the rifles got Thor and Nick back on their feet. Wes spent the next several hours teaching them how to use the rifles and they fired out into the ocean to get the feel. Wes said nothing, but he noticed that Urai fired as fast as he could, Urai was going to get rid of as much weight from the pack as he could before Wes made them run back. Wes set a grueling pace throughout the day teaching tactics, hand-to-hand combat, and everything he had learned during the Phase 1 course at the Gunslinger camp. By the end of the second week even Urai was keeping pace and they had grown a following of boys around their age running behind them. Wes startled everyone when he suddenly stopped one morning and faced the boys that had taken to following them. “Who wants to be a Gunslinger?” asked Wes. All twelve of the boys following raised their hands. Wes looked at his deputies, “I teach you, you teach them,” said Wes and then turned back to the boys. “Break off into groups of three behind one of my deputies, if you can’t hack it, go home, if I see something I don’t like, I’m sending you home.” The boys all laughed at that, none of them had homes, they were all street kids. “Umm.. Boss?” said Urai. “You want me to train three too?” “I want the three of you to trade back and forth until you find the boys that fit with you best,” explained Wes. “Urai, I want you to train yours for the support roles; administration, flight operations, and communications. Understand?” “You got it, Boss,” said Urai happily. Wes thought Urai looked like he was starting to muscle up a bit and he seemed to be walking taller—and did he have his chest puffed up just a little bit? “Good, we got ourselves a police force,” said Wes. *** Raen walked around the damaged ships lying on the end of the airfield, they looked far worse in the light of day then they had on the monitors in deep space. He was certain two of the ships were a complete loss and would need replaced. Raen finished his inspection of the ships and hurried back over to where Moeth was sitting in the back of Kit’s damaged ship. Moeth gave him a cross look as Raen’s eyes quickly checked the egg. “I don’t care about it, but I’m not going to let it get hurt,” said Moeth irritably. Raen stroked the egg a few times and then called everyone over. The alliance gathered around to find out what the plan was now. Raen passed out the contracts Moeth had downloaded from Raven Net; none of them needed to be told what they were doing, the contracts said it all. The alliance wordlessly turned and walked towards the city, spreading out into their partner teams. “What about the egg?” asked Moeth. “You stay here and watch her,” said Raen. “I’ve kept the worse contracts for myself, I’ll take care of them.” Raen pulled his wings in tight and covered them with his cloak and walked into the city. Gini and Clap found their first target at a city park, it hadn’t been difficult to find him, a few coins and some guy drinking from a bottle on a corner had told them where to go. They glided past him in full view of other pedestrians walking past. Gini used her Talon Blade swiftly and Clap gently pulled the target off the path and out of sight where Clap lowered him to the ground. The other pedestrians didn’t notice a thing, they had executed the contract with precision; a termination if plain view was one of the more difficult methods but Clap enjoyed the sport of giving the target a chance. Peli and Vas, the true cold-blooded killers on the Moeth Alliance was thrilled to find three of their targets in one place. They walked into the Chop Shop and looked around at the vehicles in various stages of disassembly and identified their targets easily. The first two targets went down quickly and the third managed to shout out for help. Peli decided it would be too dangerous to leave witnesses and Vas pulled the metal garage door down and faced the charging men. Vas enjoyed the exercise after being confined to his ship for so many weeks. Vel and Ring also had a most excellent morning, they found one of their targets in a drug lab and after finishing their contract, stocked up on a few supplies, though Ring did think the quality was definitely not to Raven standards and ended up discarding most of what he pilfered. Rip and Tear, the half-Demonians had to search hard for their targets and eventually found them working in a warehouse at the docks. Later when the bodies were discovered, the City Coroner incorrectly identified the cause of death as a large unknown exotic predator that must have escaped from a private collector and gotten into the warehouse; the bodies had been ripped and torn apart by fangs and claws. The afternoon wore on and the Moeth Alliance collected contract after contract. *** Wes stood outside on the sidewalk and watched Urai standing in the middle of the intersection trying to teach the new deputies how to manage traffic. Wes was pretty sure they were causing more traffic problems than they were fixing, but they were trying. “Excuse me?” Wes could see him out of the corner of his eye, the boy had been standing there for ten minutes, it was the boy Wes had arrested joy riding several weeks earlier. “What do you want, boy?” asked Wes. “I want to be a Gunslinger too,” said the boy. “Your name is Tani, isn’t it?” asked Wes. “Yes.” “You like cars?” “Duh.” “See Urai, tell him I said you’re to be assigned to the garage,” said Wes. “You don’t have any police cars,” said Tani. “Sure I do, I have one,” said Wes. “That’s my car, you took it from me,” accused Tani. “Nope, it’s my car now,” said Wes. “Did you really build it by yourself?” “Yes,” said Tani proudly. “Okay, your first mission is to convert it into a police car,” said Wes. “That’s not fair,” said Tani. “Okay, deals off,” said Wes. “Alright, I’ll do it,” said Tani. “Do I get paid?” Wes was interrupted as a black sedan screeched to a stop in front of the sidewalk and Judge Cietan jumped out. “We’ve got a problem!” shouted the Judge. The Judge ran around the car and looked up at the Justice Building and then the new deputies in the middle of the intersection. “Are you running a Justice of the Peace office or a school?” asked the Judge. “Yes,” said Wes. “What’s the problem, Judge?” “Someone has declared a war, I’m getting reports from all over the city of murders, at least sixty-four so far,” said the Judge. “I don’t have an emergency line here yet, or any line for that matter, or lights, or heat,” said Wes. “I know, I know… I’m working on it,” said the Judge. “I’ll look into,” said Wes. “Where’s the concentration of murders at?” “They are all over, I can’t see a pattern,” explained the Judge. Wes narrowed his eyes, a rash of murders, no pattern, and all over the city, he already had an idea of what was going on. “I need a ride over to the Needle Tower,” said Wes. The Judge drove Wes over and he hopped out and assured the Judge he would get to the bottom of it. Wes took the elevator to the top floor and stepped out; at least a dozen men with guns were hiding behind furniture waiting for him. “I’m not here to see Eugene,” said Wes grinning at his own little joke dropping Boss Needle’s real name. Wes ignored the men and walked past them, and the cowering Boss Needle hiding behind his desk, and stopped in front of the big glass windows. He watched the city, specifically, he watched the rooftops. “What are you looking for?” asked Boss Needle. Wes gave Eugene a glance with the cold dead eyes of a Gunslinger; Boss Needle didn’t ask anymore questions. Wes continued to watch and saw what he was looking for ten minutes later; he nodded his head slightly, it was exactly what he thought—Ravens. Wes left the Needle Tower and made his way through the back streets until he found the alley he was looking for and melted into the shadows as Mother Raven had taught him. He waited motionless in the shadows for nearly an hour before it appeared, a single Raven moving through the shadow on the other side of the alley—this Raven was wearing wings. Wes watched the Raven enter a building and ten minutes later emerged wiping his Talon Dagger off. Wes stayed still and didn’t move. The Raven started back down the alley and Wes was about to step out of the shadow when a man staggered out of the door the Raven had come from. Wes waited for the Raven to turn around; surely he must have heard the man. No, thought Wes, he’s distracted by something and not paying attention. The man at the door raised his hand, he had a gun. Wes drew and fired and the man dropped. If for no other reason then to see the startled look on the Raven’s face, Wes was glad to have saved the Raven. Wes came out of the shadows, holstered his gun and walked up to the Raven. “You!” growled the Raven. “Let’s go see Mother Raven,” said Wes. “If she allows it, I’ll be more than happy to fight you.” Wes turned and walked away, not looking to see if the Raven followed. Wes headed for the Casino, Mother Raven hadn’t been at the Needle Tower, so she was probably at the Raven Casino. By the time Wes reached the Casino, he counted seventeen Ravens following the one he had saved in the ally, and if he knew anything about Ravens, that meant one was missing. Ravens worked in pairs but traveled in what they called alliances. Wes pushed the doors open to Mother Raven’s office and walked in, Mother Raven was sitting at her desk talking with the missing Raven sitting in a chair against the wall. Wes walked over to her desk, there was an egg lying in the center of the desk. “Explain yourselves,” said Mother Raven, Wes walked around the desk and took a position next to Mother Raven. The winged Raven’s eyes narrowed when he saw the egg and and his expression was one of pure hatred as he stared at Mother Raven. “We were…” the Raven started to say. “I know what you were doing,” shouted Mother Raven. “Eighty-seven contracts in one day in one city! Are you bereft of your senses?” “We needed money,” said the Raven. “Give me the contracts,” said Mother Raven. The winged Raven collected pieces of paper from the other Ravens and laid them on the desk next to the egg, his hand brushed the egg briefly before taking a step back. Wes watched the winged Raven’s eyes—the egg—he was afraid. Wes could see it in his face, something about the egg had him terrified. Mother Raven went through the pieces of paper and sorted them into piles. “These eight are no good,” said Mother Raven. “The person that took these contracts out is dead.” She tossed the eight pieces of paper to the side and picked up another pile and handed them to Wes. “These are yours, I expect payment,” said Mother Raven. “Huh?” Wes looked at the slips of paper, twenty-two of them. “These are wanted posters…oh, dead or alive. Wait! I don’t have this kind of money.” “You better find it,” said Mother Raven. “And for the rest, Raen, you have earned a total of twelve million, but your repair bill is twenty-six million.” “I don’t have…” the Raven started to say. “I will forgive the rest,” said Mother Raven laying her hand on the egg.” “No, please,” cried the Raven. “Anything, but not that.” “Leave now, while you can,” said Mother Raven. The winged Raven ruffled his feathers in anger and Mother Raven stood and every one of the Ravens in front of her desk jumped back a step. Wes looked down at Mother Raven’s hand; she had the point of her dagger against the egg. The winged Raven wept and the others pulled him from the room. Mother Raven waited until they were gone and put her Talon Dagger away. “What are your thoughts?” asked Mother Raven. “My Pa always told me to respect other cultures, so it’s not my place to say,” said Wes. Mother Raven picked up the egg and gently handed it to Wes. “What?” asked Wes not knowing what to do but taking the egg in his hands. “Listen carefully,” said Mother Raven. “I am too old and will not be around long enough to protect this egg, but I can not allow Raen to take this egg and steal it away from the Temple.” “I can’t take care of an egg,” said Wes. “You can, and you will,” Mother Raven’s eyes were as fire. “This egg will herald the arrival of the Eagle, every known world’s survival depends on finding the Eagle, protect this egg.”