| abstract
| - You heard right, kill Noover Gevorian, the current Grad of Maynus, the leader of the planet and the only thing holding the monarchy up, as I was told by Rilek. Noover Gevorian, the man who I had stared at for what felt like an eternity, which mentioning that to Rilek seemed to be the wrong thing as he grew frustrated and yelled at me. It took several tries to convince him that I had no knowledge of what my job was. After which, we walked to his apartment in complete silence. “So we need to come up with an escape plan for after we do the deed and I was thinking the tunnels would be the best bet.” Rilek said after I walked through the door. “While the tunnels seem like our only option, it will be hard to get to them since the entrance on this side is in the Grad’s personal suite. “Shit,” Rilek muttered under his breath. “Are you sure there are no other entrances?” I could tell Rilek was on the edge of his patience and I did not want to be on the receiving end of his wrath. “The tunnels were pretty straight and the only other way in seemed to be these grates above head that led to the Lahari forest.” “Well we can check those out tomorrow, you know, check if we can get in from there. How tall up were the tunnels?” He asked as he pulled a cigar out of his jacket pocket and lit it. “I’m not sure, I traveled mostly at night, but some areas seems to be over 4 meters high.” I wasn’t great at measurements, but I do recall some areas being really tall. “That’s not good, the would surely break a limb or end our lives. We can always test the drops.” “How?” I was pretty sure I didn’t want to know. “Well there are some punks that owe me money and I’m sure most aren’t going to pay, so we just drop them down the chute and see if they’re still screaming.” “That’s sick.” “Thank you.” “I’m pretty sure we can find another way in.” I said. To be truthful, I’ve never killed someone. Well inadvertency I have. I mean, stealing a starving man’s food is bad, but at least I didn’t stab or strangle him. “Fine, but if you don’t find another way in by tomorrow, we’re dropping bodies.” he said releasing smoke from his nose and mouth. Now I wanted more than anything to find another way. Rilek was known to be brutal with those who didn’t pay back their loans, and I didn’t want to be any part of it. We returned to our silence until Rilek stood up and walked out of the room, presumably to go to sleep. Not knowing where I should sleep, I threw my head back and let my eyes close. — — — — — — — — — The sunlight hit my eyes with a stern welcome. “There we go. I’ve been kicking at you for over an hour, almost thought you died.” were the first words I heard as I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “You better hurry out if you want to find some ‘alternate’ way into the tunnels.” “OK,” I said as I picked myself up and walked out of his house. I was still half-asleep but I trudged through the sector doing the same old routine as I once had done. I walked around the market, listening for news, but other than Ajen Adly’s infected foot, there was nothing interesting. I then headed onward to the lake, where I would often find little critters to kill when I was younger. Now most of the wildlife is dead from hunters or from drinking the water. I reached the lake and was met with a heinous stench. The once murky water had turned completely into a sewage pit that turned me around the second my nostrils caught whiff of it. That meant I was off to the Liongrad Inn, which housed most rear SecPol officers and prostitutes, and I’m pretty sure that grouping wasn’t an accident. I reached the back door, due to the fact that entering the front door would result in being kicked out by SecPol, I knocked three times and hoped the inn had the same management. Luckily it did. The door opened and I was met with hugs, “Hello, hello, hello!” Larild bellowed. “It’s good to see you to,” I said gently pushing him away. He took the hint and backed away, his face still gleaming with the happiness an old friend brings. He was my oldest friend, not just in years of knowing each other, but he had been entering his forties the same time I was learning to talk. “It’s been a while, how have you been?” he asked as he led me further into the inn. “Good, I just got out and home just came calling back.” “Ah, you did time up in the prison, I see. Whatever happened to the boy who was going to run straight out of the Lahari and become rich and famous?” “Not prison, exactly. Also, that boy, he’s still around. Also, I may have found a way to become famous.” “Oh yeah, how so?” He asked once we were seated on the front couch. The couch had become more worn over that years, which wasn’t a surprise. A cheap bastard like Larild wasn’t going to toss out a couch unless it was crawling with Spindells and reeked of the dead. Man, he’s great. “Well, that’s a secret.” “C’mon, you know I can keep secrets.” “Well let’s just say I’m working for some guys,” I said in a hushed tone. The threat of SecPol hearing me here was strong. I didn’t want to trouble Larild, this place was all he had. “You better not be involved in any of those gangs,” Larild said in a strict tone. “No no no, it’s nothing like that,” I lied. “If you say so,” I heard from a distance. It was Larild’s daughter, Jenn. Her beauty was unlike anyone else in all the rear sector. Which really isn’t saying much as most men and women here had strange deformities due to poor living conditions or a Maynian ale addiction. She was like my sister when we were growing up, but as we grew older we drifted apart. I wasn’t surprised by it, though. She wanted to move up in the city, I wanted to move out. I succeeded, she didn’t. “Jenn, how are you?” I tried sounding as casual as possible, but I ended up sounding too excited. “Oh, I’m fine, I just got a job working at Belaham palace!” she said running over to me and giving me a hug. For that second, I forgot that I had ever left. “That’s great! When do you start?” “Tomorrow, I’ll be giving the tours,” she said a huge grin on her face. “This palace worker came by earlier asked me a whole bunch of questions, probably to make sure I wasn’t some sort of murderer, and then offered me the job.” By the end of her explanation she was out of breath and red faced, yet still beautiful. “Oh, I hear those tours are great.” I remember that over-excited tour guide and she almost reminded me of a better looking, less excited female version of him. She would fit in fine. “I can’t believe it!” she yelled running up the inn’s stairs and presumably into her room. “I can’t believe my baby girl’s moving up in the world.” Larild said wiping a tear from his wrinkled cheek. “Soon she’ll be out of this garbage heap.” “I’m proud of her,” I said, thinking of the palace, and the tours, and the servant staff. That’s it! There has to be a male servant staff, and if there is, than we can sneak in, do the deed while the Grad is sleeping and then sneak out the tunnels before anyone realizes something has happened. “Oh damn, I just realize I need to be off.” I said hastily sitting up and walking through the front door. Once I left, I headed straight for Rilek’s house. Upon arriving there I knocked on his door hoping he was still in. I knew that my idea was dangerous, but ensured that only the necessary died. I mean, I don’t think I fully grasped the fact that I would soon see the death of the most important man on the planet, but if I had, I probably wouldn’t care. I mean in his reign alone our sector’s well being has collapsed and it only seems to be getting worse. His father was bad, but Noover is worse. After minutes of waiting, Rilek’s door finally opened and I was ushered inside. “I’ve got an idea,” I said once his door closed and I knew we were safe. “Spit it out all ready,” Rilek said before puffing on his signature cigar. “OK, we dress up as servants and sneak into his chambers while he’s sleeping and kill him. We then use the entrance and sneak away before anyone realizes something is wrong.” “One problem,” he said blowing smoke in my face. “What?” I asked while I was choking. “The sexist bastard only has female servants.” “Frak,” was all I could say before another idea smacked me on the head, well it was actually Rilek’s hand that did the smacking, but an idea came nonetheless. “Two of the guards already think I’m one of the servant’s brother. Let’s take advantage of this somehow.” “Why do the guards think that?” “One of the servants told him when they found me in their chambers.” “Wait, you’re telling me you were shacking up with the sex slaves?” “They’re not sex slaves!” I was surprisingly angry, I blamed in on the previous head slap. “Whatever you say, Mac. Let’s talk about this later, I got some lady friends coming over.” He said shooing me out the door. “We’ll talk later,” was all he said before slamming the door behind me. I’m guessing he needed to go freshen up. As I walked out, I saw a large group of women approaching his house. It looked as if Rilek was going to have all the fun while I was stuck finding somewhere to sleep. Welcome home, Mac Follin.
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