The Guardian Chronicles – Part 11 – When The Devil Shows Himself

Seven uniformed Annihilators were posted on top of the hill overlooking the Sonoma Valley, with the houses below under constant surveillance. It had just turned dark, all night vision equipment was now being used, after all, they were expecting company. One of the men broke the silence “I can’t believe that this is all for just one guy”, Bjorn gave the man a stern look “Do not ever underestimate any person that we have been charged with monitoring or locating. This man is extremely dangerous and well-trained, he has already killed a several of our men, some of the best assassins in the business. He may have already killed our team in the woods, and he may even have you and I in his sights right now deciding if he should rip, cut or blow our heads off. So my little drone if I were you, I would take this seriously, otherwise I’d be more than glad to kill you right here myself so that you wouldn’t have to worry about it, KAPISH” . The man’s eyes were wide open “Yes sir” was all he could muster, he quickly went back to his job, he placed his head phones on and stared intently into the monitor. Bjorn turned his head to snicker, he loved giving the young guys a bunch of shit.

Arius was blending in with the trees and monitoring the house. Just before sunset, he noticed a flash coming off of the lens from one of the binoculars or spotting scopes that were being used. He knew that there were at least two points where they were monitoring him, he might be spotted by the group on the hill if he moves towards the house. He can’t afford to fold time too much, he will need his strength when he reaches Gina and Olivia, so folding time must be kept to a minimum. Arius was already covered in mud from head to toe, he had rolled in a mud puddle before leaving the woods. He did this to minimize the brightness of his body, and possibly reduce his heat signature if they were using any thermal imaging equipment. Arius then moved around to the back part of the hill in hopes of finding a hole in their security.

Back on the hill, Gustav knew he should not have drunk so much soda, now he had to get rid of it, which was fine by him, since he was bored by this current observation detail. He went down the hill only about sixty meters, there was a large boulder on the side of the hill where he could piss out of sight of the others. Gustav was thinking that this was the most enjoyable thing he’s done today as he continued to pee. “Well, you must be the whiz kid of the bunch” Gustav turned towards the voice thinking that it was one of his comrades, only to find that it was this scary looking man covered from head to toe in dirt and mud. “Hey, does that thing come in an adult size?” Arius said jokingly pointing to Gustav’s crotch. Gustav looked down at the penis in his hand, and then looked back up at Arius in embarrassment. “Made ya look” Arius then kicked the man in the groin, and as he buckled over he grabbed him by the back of his head and pulled it down into his upcoming knee. The cartilage in Gustav’s nose shattered upon impact, it seemed that the blood was almost instantaneous. Darkness fell upon the man as Arius slowly lowered him to the ground. Arius whispered to himself “Shit, the little prick pee’d on my foot” Arius then sized up Gustav “Hmm, he looks to be about my size” he thought “I hope that he didn’t wet his pants”.

Arius, now a little cleaned up and wearing the uniform that Gustav wore, moved up the hill noting the locations of the people there. Two were over by the surveillance equipment with headphones on staring into monitors connected to spotting scopes, another one was on the parabolic listener, also wearing headphones, and two more, who appeared to be higher ranked, were over by the SUV looking over some maps on the hood of the vehicle. Now that he was dressed like them, it may make it easier to penetrate their defenses, but Arius also knew that once they figured out who he was, all hell would break loose. He would have to move fast, he did not want to give it away that he was now in their camp.

Bjorn and Hector were going over the local maps in hopes of trying to figure out where Arius might try to work his way towards the house. Bjorn pointed to a creek bed on the map that runs behind the house “This creek over here, it’s low ground, the water level is not too high right now, so he can move easily through it and he can use the running water to cut down on any unnatural sounds that he might make” Hector nodded in agreement. Bjorn looked over his shoulder, one of the soldiers had his back to him “What the fuck? do you think this is some kind of vacation here in the Sonoma Valley?” Bjorn was furious, he stepped towards the soldier “What the fuck, are you stoned or something?” Hector just shook his head and went back to evaluating the maps. The soldier replied “I think I may have found something of interest sir” Bjorn did not change his attitude “You stupid son of a bitch, turn around when you speak to me or I’ll rip your fucking head off, now what is it that you think you found asshole?”. He waits till Bjorn is just a few feet away and then turns to answer him “Our target” Bjorn’s expression was now that of surprise as he looked into Arius’s face. But that was all he had time for, before he could even make a sound, a knife was forced into Bjorn’s throat, he dropped to his knees immediately. Hector then turned to see what was happening, he saw Bjorn drop, but Arius was already behind him and had clasped his mouth and nose with his hand. Even before hector realized what had just occurred, Arius had already stabbed him three times in the kidney’s. Hector tried to speak, but no sound would pass his lips, nor would he ever utter another word again. Arius then pushed the dagger into the side of Hector’s neck, the sharpened blade slid easily into it intended target. The point of the knife reached the other side and stuck through a few inches indicating a perfect execution of the maneuver that was designed to sever the throat and the jugular, thus keeping the victim silent and also producing a quick death when they drowned in their own blood.

The headphones that the remaining men were wearing, are of the highest quality that money could buy. Good for keeping unwanted noise out, bad for letting you know that those around you have just experienced the wrong end of a knife. There were two sound monitoring devices being used, one was a parabolic sound amplifier and the other was a laser sound amplifier. There was one man monitoring both units, needless to say, he was preoccupied. Arius did not want to use a gun if he did not have to, his next move would have to be executed perfectly for it to work. The last three Annihilators of this surveillance detail were close together, yet not close enough. Arius looked in the truck that Bjorn and Hector were using as a table. Inside he found a hatchet and some hunting knives, so far so good. Arius went up to guy on the listening devices, but unfortunately the plan took a turn for the worst. One of the soldiers who was watching the monitors, decided to turn around, he stood up and did not recognize Arius “Who the fuck are you?” a hiss was heard through the air before the hunting knife entered his throat, he fell back and landed on top of the guy behind him. By this time the one monitoring the listening devices grabbed Arius by the arm, Arius swung and cleaved the mans arm off with the hatchet, he then reversed the hatchet and almost removed the mans head. The other soldier was just pushing the body of his now dead friend off of himself, Arius turned his attention to the lone soldier. He scrambled to get to his feet, his headphones had slid down to his neck, he could see Arius approaching him, he still had trouble getting up as he scurried on his hands and knees. The soldier was able to get up and took three steps where he fell down the hill that Arius had just come up. He tumbled downward hitting rocks, brush and tangles as he careened down the hill. Finally he came to a stop, where he collected himself and shook off the fall. He then looked to his right where he saw the three dead bodies next to each other. “Oh dear lord, NO!” the man screamed, just then he heard a voice “What I see here is a choice, you can be tied up here and hope that they find you or…?” The man looked up at Arius, he waited for him to finish the rest of his sentence. “Or what?” he asked frantically. Arius had the hatchet in his hands and sneered at the man “Do you really have to ask?” as he slapped the hatchet in his hand repeatedly.

Arius was now looking at the monitors and thinking how cool this stuff was “I’m gonna need to me some of this” he said to himself.  He was able to see into and around the house and was able to determine how many men were there and where they were located. He looked around and picked up what he needed, a few knives here,  a gun or two there and some odds and ends. He took one last look at the monitor, he knew he had to hurry, he didn’t know if they had a schedule for keeping in radio contact with each other or not, which would alert the group in the house with the hostages that something was wrong. Arius had worked his way down the hill where could not be seen. He lowered himself into the creek and worked his way towards the house. He came up on the corner of the house that gave him the best view and also the best cover. He peered into the house with the night vision binoculars and could see the Olivia and her mother next to each other tied to a chair. Then one of the men turned as if on cue “Zoltan?” Arius was slightly shocked “That son of a bitch, I thought I killed you in Budapest”. Zoltan Szabo and Arius had run into each other just over fifty years ago, Hungary was going through some growing pains and was just about to have a revolution. Zoltan was on the side of the communists, he belonged to the Annihilators and this unrest was a great excuse to cause trouble and to hurt others. Arius knew he was ruthless and not to be trusted, he was from a well to do family of royal descent, but his blood lust and need to cause pain to others was greater than his family duties. Arius had always suspected that there was annihilator blood in him, seeing him here fifty years later looking as if he was in his 40′s just proved his suspicions. Time to update the plans that Arius had previously thought up, now that he had a better idea of what he was up against. “There’s just no other way” he thought “It’s gonna be a bloody night no matter what I do, lets just hope that it’s all theirs”.

 

© 2010 Steven Takacs