Murder of Crows (Book One of The Icarus Trilogy) (33 page)

“Easy way out of the landing zone is over there,” he said before the Englishman laughed and started to check the condition of his rifle.  Jenkins shifted his weight to one side and raised an eyebrow.

“Ah, but where's the fun in that?  Sorry, wait a bit while I look this darling over.  One time when I landed I cracked the scope and didn’t realize until we got in the thick of it.  I’d rather know if I have to start using the iron sight,” he said as he peered down the scope and smiled.  He loved this gun and all the ones like it.  The jester could see nothing wrong with this specimen so he slung the rifle over his soldier and grabbed his sidearm in order to defend himself if they found a Kraken or two.  He walked up to Jenkins and before the young soldier could react he threw his arm around the man’s shoulders and tapped his chest plate with the barrel of his pistol.  Jenkins did nothing to hold back his snarl.

“Look, you need to brighten up.  We’re gonna have fun today, just you wait.  All you have to do is tell me where to point the finger of God, here, and if you want you can throw away bullets like candy.  It’ll be a right old time.”  Jenkins huffed and shrugged off the man’s shoulder.  While he could do with some cheer, he also didn’t want to be touched by the man.

“Next time you throw your arms around me you better have a drink,” Jenkins said before walking to the pathway.  Norris laughed and kept pace by his side.

“That’s the spirit, mate.  And I’ve already drank a bit today, just so you know, so I guess that means I get to touch ya,” he said before raising his eyebrows.  He knew the other soldier couldn’t see it, but the joke just didn’t feel right without it.

“I meant for me, you dick.  Never mind,” Jenkins said before the path opened up to another ruined iron landscape.  The young Crow turned to look at the Englishman and sighed.  There was a touch of pain in his nose, but Roberts had given him another pill so it wasn’t so bad.  “So basically we’re gonna walk around until you see a good spot to shoot at people’s heads?”  Norris looked at him and waved his gun around with a flourish.

“Well, I figured we could watch some soaps and maybe go to the pub beforehand, but I guess we could do our jobs.  And the spot’s right over there,” Norris said before pointing with his pistol to a decrepit building off towards the south.  “We can play house until the bad guys show up, how about that?”  Norris started off to the building, which was only half a kilometer away, and Jenkins watched as the Englishman carried himself without a care.  Understandably it was a bit of a shock when the man reached level ground and started to skip towards his destination.  Jenkins was floored by the man’s cavalier method and realized that if he didn’t follow just to watch for enemies the Englishman was going to get himself killed.  He sprinted after the man and started cursing under his breath.

Within a minute he reached Norris, who was standing in the middle of the battlefield; the jester had stopped skipping once he realized he was alone in his journey.  When he reached the Englishman, Jenkins desperately looked around trying to find enemies that would pop out of cover.  Norris raised an eyebrow at the soldier’s behavior and patted him on the back with his free hand.

“What are you doing, rookie?  Stop acting so nervous, that’s what’s going to kill you.”  Jenkins’ eye twitched at the statement and he almost couldn’t believe the man’s antics.

“And skipping’s not?  That was the most idiotic thing I’ve ever seen,” Jenkins said before looking around again.  Norris just laughed and shook his head.

“You poor boy; you really haven’t lived.  I suggest some skipping; it does the heart wonders.  I am going to need you to stop stressing out, because this,” he said before waving his hand to indicate their relationship, “needs to be more light-hearted.”  Jenkins looked at the Englishman and pursed his lips.

“Norris, you could have skipped your way into enemy territory and gotten yourself killed.  Do you not see the seriousness of that?  You could have died.”  Norris stopped in his tracks and tapped on Jenkins’ shoulder.

“I’m going to die, mate.  Maybe not today, maybe not in the next game, could be a long time considering how good I am, but I am going to die,” he said, doing his best to transmit his smile through his words.  “And so are you.  It’s something we just have to accept.  And the thing is, mate, that I don’t want to spend my entire life worrying about how and when I’m going to die next or what I could have done to prevent it.  I’m just going to have fun with it.  I’m going to skip when I feel like it.  I’m going to shoot people’s heads off when I’m good and ready.  Now, tell me, rookie, where’s the flaw in that logic, hmm?” 

Jenkins looked at him throughout the speech and wanted to interject, but now when he was put to the question he realized that the man was entirely right.  The only way that Jenkins was going to live through this life of his was if he accepted it for what it was.  He was going to die and most likely never make it off the asteroid again, but this was his life.  He might be an eternal prisoner, but he didn’t have to dwell on it every day until they forcibly retired him.  He looked at Norris and felt ashamed of chiding the man for his childish behavior.  Norris cocked his head and threw his arm around the young soldier.

“Aww, don’t be like that.  It’s just a life lesson, kiddo.  And, with all that said, it was incredibly foolish for me to skip through the battlefield,” he said with a smile before nudging the bottom of Jenkins’ helmet.  “It was a little insensitive of me to do that, and I’m sorry.  I could’ve died and left you all alone and I didn’t consider that.  I’m sorry for being selfish,” he said before Jenkins turned his head to look at the man and laughed.

“No, you’re not.”

“I am!  I am.  Ok, not entirely, but I am sympathetic.  Listen, no more skipping from me in this game, how about that?  Now can you cheer up?” he asked before raising his arm from the man’s shoulders and lifting his hands up in a fun gesture.  Jenkins scoffed and shook his head.

“Yeah, I think I can do that,” Jenkins said before sighing at the Englishman.  Norris clapped his hands and let the grin stretch his face beneath the mask.

“Excellent, you wanna get some skipping in?”  Jenkins cocked his head and shifted his weight to one side of his hips.

“You can go fuck yourself, Norris,” he said, unaware that a smile had crept across his face during the exchange.  Norris laughed and patted the man’s back again.

“Already did, mate.  But don’t worry,” he said while winking and waving the hand holding the pistol.  “Other hand.”

“Gross,” Jenkins said before continuing to the house.

“Oh, you can’t tell me you don’t do it, too.  It’s healthy.”  Jenkins looked at the man walking alongside him and knew exactly why Abrams had chosen him; the Englishman just never stopped having fun.  It must have been a nice way for the woman to escape.

It wasn’t long before they reached the dilapidated building.  It clearly used to be at least three stories tall but the third level had been torn off by something or other.  The second floor had an exposed roof and plenty of tumbling walls around the side.  Norris smiled as he realized that the Commission had provided for him the perfect sniper nest.  He ran over to the stairs and looked at the rotten wood, wondering if it would support his weight, and then shrugged.  The Englishman wanted to get upstairs, so he would need to take the chance.  He gingerly placed his foot onto the wooden plank and could hear it creak, but it accepted his weight and the sniper smiled.

The entire staircase underwent the same scrutiny.  He would only progress to the next step after testing whether or not it would tumble away.  Eventually the sniper reached the top of the stairs and he turned around to let Jenkins know it was safe, but was surprised to see the young Crow right behind him.

“Scared me, there.  Why didn’t you wait until I’d tested the entire thing?”  Jenkins shrugged and gave a slight smile under the helmet.

“If it could carry your lanky ass I was pretty sure I’d be able to get up the thing.  And if one of the boards snapped I wanted to be able to catch you when you fell,” Jenkins said with a sarcastic note to his voice.  However horrible he had felt in the last night, it was nice to just goof off with the Englishman.  Norris appreciated the change in atmosphere and laughed heartily.

“Oh, my hero, however should I thank you?” he asked while adopting an impression of a southern belle.  Jenkins laughed and pushed past him into the second floor.

“Maybe you can introduce me to your hand,” Jenkins said before cocking an eyebrow.  Norris exploded into laughter and had to put his hand on one of the support beams nearby.

“You’re a dirty, little fucker, aren’t you?  This,” he said before waving his hand between them again, “will work.  Ok, I’m gonna set up here on the north wall,” Norris said before walking past Jenkins and slinging his rifle back over his shoulder.  Jenkins smiled and wondered if he would ever have thought of that joke with anybody else.  He watched the Englishman as he started tweaking the instruments on his rifle and settled himself into the right position.  At first he laid down, but then he was uncomfortable and just decided to hunch down on his ankles.  Norris seemed to like that and then sat himself with his back to the wall behind him.  Then he unclasped his helmet and set it by his side.  The man’s red hair stood in stark contrast to the bleak browns and grays around them.  Jenkins was curious about why the Englishman would take off his helmet but he didn’t say anything.  He didn’t need to; Norris saw the man’s tilted head and shrugged.

“It’s harder to see through the scope like that.  The other snipers always rely on the instruments and the relay to the helmet, but I hate switching back and forth like that.  I’d rather just have the helmet off.”  Jenkins walked over to the man and then sat down against the support beam so that he could look out through the walls around him but still be comfortable.

“Yeah, but isn’t it going to be way easier for someone to pop your head off?”  Norris gave him a disappointed look and shook his head.

“Mate, I thought we talked about this.  I’m going to enjoy myself and the helmet is certainly no fun.  Besides, I’m way too good for that,” he said before winking again.  That was the other reason Norris preferred to keep the helmet off, but he wouldn’t tell Jenkins that.  While proud of his facial expressions, it was just a bit vain for the soldier to admit it to anyone else.  He peeked around the wall opening by his side and scanned the horizon.  He didn’t see any movement and sighed.  He turned to look back at his compatriot and saw the young soldier was still looking through the holes in the walls nearby.  He turned his head to face Norris and shrugged.

“So what now?”  Norris smiled and flicked the crust of dirt off of his boot.

“Roast marshmallows.  Other than that we just check to see we’re not getting surrounded but that’s pretty much the extent of it.”

“Ah,” Jenkins said before looking at the rifle in his hand.  He wondered if he was even going to use it.  In the best of circumstances he guessed he wouldn’t have to.

-

“So the thing was, I had basically skipped out on all these rotten debts and was on the run for a little bit.  I made it to Solaria and I was living as a cabana boy before the EOSF got to me.  It was a sight, let me tell you,” Norris said while laughing at the memory.  It hadn’t been long before Norris launched into a very revelatory story about his past.  It made sense that he would be the type to run out of a few casinos.

“I was this half-naked, gangly Englishman being led through the hotel by these fully armored EOSF officers while all these celebrities and rich people looked on in disgust.  They had the worst looks on their faces.  This one codger gave me this look like he smelled a sewer rat, and he might have not deserved it, but I couldn’t let that one stand, mate.  I head-butted the ponce and I just laughed the whole way to the prisoner transport.  I think I had blood all over my face for my mug shot.  Anyway, long story short after I made a few friends on the inside they pulled some strings and I ended up here.  I wonder if that fucker had to get surgery,” he said before looking off into space.  He grinned at the thought and shrugged.  “That would have made it so much better.”  Jenkins laughed at the man’s story and shook his head.  The man was certainly unbelievable.  Norris gave him a look and nodded at him.

“What?”  Norris rolled his eyes and gave him an incredulous look.

“Don’t you ‘what,’ me.  Time for your story, newbie.  Fair trade and all that jazz,” he said before scratching his cheek, which had a fair amount of peach fuzz scattered around in patches.  Jenkins looked at the man for a while, reticent to tell his story, especially in the consideration that it might not be his story anymore, but the man had just told him his tale.  It would be an act of bad faith to let the jester remain ignorant.  Jenkins shifted in his seat and rubbed his hand over his rifle.

“Not much to tell, really.  I was in a gang.  My friends gave me up to the EOSF and I took the easy way out.”  Norris gave him a moment to continue his story, but after a short time the sniper adopted a disappointed look.

“You’re a horrible story-teller, mate.  It’s all in the details.  Remember that old man from my story?  That’s what made it a good one.  I’m not even sure if it really happened anymore; I’ve just always had him in the story.  He’s part of it, now.  You understand?”  Jenkins looked at the man and considered his words.  He was right; the details were always what made a story good and Jenkins had never been the type to tell a good one.  He shifted in his seat again and was able to see through the hole in the wall just in time to see a pair of soldiers scrambling over some wreckage a quarter of a kilometer away.  He immediately sat forward and started to get into position.

“Contact!  Behind you,” he whispered to the jester.

“Shit.  Shitting shit, I was just about to get you to talk,” he said before turning to raise his rifle.  He was far more concerned with Jenkins’ past than the encroaching threat.  He put his eye to the rifle’s scope and watched as the two Krakens advanced on their position.  The two soldiers had no idea that they were about to die, which made Norris smile; there was something beautiful in that ignorance.