The Mulligan Planet (10 page)

Anton scooped up the pictures,
“Alright, you are all off duty until Friday morning, I suggest you
head to the medical centre for evaluation ASAP, they’ll make room
for you all. In case I don’t see you before dust off, good luck.” I
nodded expressionlessly at him as he left, my fingertips were
tingling and I couldn’t feel my feet. I really don’t like getting
stabbed, getting shot sucks but the bullet tears through or it gets
pushed out from my body, not like getting knifed, which just plain
stings, it’s kind of like a sound at first entry, it’s difficult to
explain but it’s a very specific sensation. Normally though I would
start to heal by that point, something about this was different, “I
think I’ll go to med station.” I stood, took two steps, had tunnel
vision, blinked and was in a stiff bed surrounded by curtains. I
was in soft patient robes, a drip in my arm and a soft pillow
cradling my head. “Hello?” Kate came in through the curtains, “Hey,
how are you feeling?” how
was
I feeling? The wooziness was
gone, my back felt good and healed, for me I’d just gone from
unbelievable pain and dizziness to completely fine in an instant
“Yeah, good, what happened?” I pulled the drip out and hung it up
on the heart monitor, must be linked with the OLHUD I thought when
I couldn’t find the finger tab. Kate was now sitting in a chair
next to me, “That knife that you got stabbed with was laced with a
cyanide-calcium compound, the hunters must’ve engineered it.
Luckily all it did was slow your healing temporarily and knock you
out. Now, we need to get you something to eat, it’s almost time to
ship out, we were almost going to leave you behind, take one of the
others on hand.” I sat up and stretched, I’d slept for the whole
day, missed final briefing, the feast, everything. A nurse came in
holding a tray with a blood bag on one side and a plate with a
large steak and chips. She placed it on my lap and left mutely with
a face of pure distaste. I really wasn’t in the mood to reassert
her comfort with vampires and their eating habits, I carved the
steak up and began eating, “Are you ok?” Kate looked somewhat
shocked at the question, to be fair I’d be shocked if she were in a
hospital bed asking if I was the one who was alright, “Yeah, I’m
ok, some of the bullets were laced with something as well, but I’m
fine now.” I sunk my teeth into the blood bag and let its contents
flush through my mouth. “How long until we leave?” Kate stuck her
head out of the curtains then came back in, “Two hours.” I wiped my
mouth with the napkin under my plate, the steak gone and the blood
bag drained. I felt the strength that I didn’t notice had faded
returning, I could physically feel it tingling through my body,
binding with my being; it felt good. I shot up, “Then let’s go. I
need to grab some stuff from my room; I’ll meet you at plane.” Her
eyes still red from the crying before she came in but she managed a
smile for me, “Do you know where it is?” I could’ve found my way to
them with the way-point system, she knew that, but what she wanted
was company, “I’d get hopelessly lost before I started, come on.” I
grabbed her hand and we ran for my room, dodging others moving
around in the attempt to fix the damage from Wednesday night's
attack, my patient drapes billowing behind me, we leaped down the
stairs after discovering that the elevator was out of order, my
door still wasn’t fixed, didn’t stress me though, there were more
important jobs to do. When I stepped through the door I turned to
see Kate looking out into the street her hand on her mouth, tears
welling up, I took a light grip of her arm and she immediately shot
into my chest, her arms wrapped around my mid-section, sobbing. I
embraced her and rested my head on hers, “I’m sorry I couldn’t save
them Kate.” She shook her head as she began to tremble.

I brought her over to the couch,
“Take a seat, I’ll be right back, I promise.” I kissed her forehead
before running into my room, grabbed my backpack and started
filling it, my backup blood bottle, a canteen and the rest of the
stuff that was normally in there, knife, binoculars, torch, flares,
tarp and a length of nylon rope. I pulled on a pair of jeans, a
white t-shirt and my black converse, I was aware that I would be
properly kitted when I reached the plane, but I didn’t want to show
up in a gown. I went back to the lounge-room to find Kate looking
at the stain on my roof, “How’d that get there?” I chuckled, I was
glad she was trying to subvert pain, “I built a catapult; had a
wine bottle as ammo.” She smiled and then laughed, “We better get
going, this isn’t the kind of flight we can miss.” I nodded, “Lead
the way.”

We walked up to the ground floor
and out through a set of panel doors to reveal a twilight bathed
runway and a large hanger behind the base where I thought was
coastline. Marcus was standing by the edge of the hangar looking
out over the dark ocean with his arms firmly behind his back. He
was still wearing his grey suit and black tie, his hair was a mess
and I could just make out his red cheeks through the fading
darkness. It was apparent that he had been out here for at least a
few hours shown through the occasional shivers that interrupted his
otherwise stoic exterior which would have been enough to conceal
his crushing sadness if it weren't for the tears that were slowly
tracing their way down his face. He wiped his face and glasses with
a cloth that he produced from his blazer before noticing us, waving
us over as soon as he did, “Come on, let’s get you two combat
ready.” I was taken to a small control room at the rear of the
monolithic hangar and soon dressed from head to toe in black gear
similar to what the guys wore when they came for me other than the
helmet that was passed to me which was similar in many aspects to a
motorcycle helmet that hugged the head more with the glass going
from the forehead to the chin instead of stopping below the
nose.

I stepped out into the hangar
and noticed just how light and flexible the suit felt while somehow
defending from the freezing ambient temperature. Marcus took the
helmet from my hands gently once I had returned to see the rest of
the team was standing in two lines with their helmets on and hands
pushed firmly to their sides. Marcus gestured for me to stand at
the front of the team and I followed without question, spinning on
the ball of my foot and standing at attention facing Marcus who
appeared to be making micro-adjustments to the helmet in his hands.
The sound of a turbine winding down behind us almost made me turn
around as Marcus walked up to me who began to put the helmet on my
head which slipped on easily before the foam interior began to
expand, making the whole helmet adjust and hug my ears while
shooting out air with a high-pitched whistle that pervaded the now
silent hangar, “Don’t worry about that hissing sound, it’s just
pressurising. This helmet is going to help you drop without having
your ears explode as well as preventing you from passing out. Get
your team over to the plane.” I nodded and marched to the left of
the two lined group, “Squad! About turn!” the team spun around to
face the plane in perfect unison, “Squad! Quick march!” Launching
into a march, we moved toward the massive plane which had a
semblance of an exotic cargo plane. Marcus had made his way around
us and now stood a few feet from the plane while we now marched on
the spot, “Squad! At ease!” Eight boots smashed the ground as our
hands snapped behind our backs while we stared blankly ahead,
“Thank you commander Prince. You are the best operatives we’ve got,
you WILL come home and we WILL mourn our dead, I promise, but for
now we need you to do this. Haul ass team, I’ll put the kettle on.”
We saluted him and marched into the back of the plane, seats lined
either side of the interior and duffel bags sat at the base of the
cockpit’s door that I figured contained the C4 and weapons. I was
the last in the plane making me the only one to watch Mark dropping
into a seated position as his face fell into his hands, his body
shaking as he cried and rocked on the spot. It devastated me seeing
him like this considering the last time I had seen him he was
celebrating his birthday. I decided against attempting to comfort
him and stepped into the plane leaving him in the cold. I strapped
myself into a seat hearing the back door closing behind me, the
cabin was in complete darkness until the engines started causing
the lights above our heads to flicker and come to life. No-one
spoke while we took off, we had no words to say, we all needed the
silence.

I looked out of the window and
saw thick black clouds while rerunning the plan through my head for
the dozenth time, Minks and his group were going to stay in the
plane until we gave the order for them to jump down with the bags.
Jump… I had to jump from the back of a plane in the same week as I
jumped off of the roof of my apartment complex. I’d done air drops
before but it was always someone else calling the shots, someone
else’s responsibility, and it definitely wasn’t storming. The I
felt my stomach drop as the plane dipped and swayed violently, the
intercom burst to life making me jump, “Ten minutes to drop one.
Sorry about the turbulence.” A sound hadn’t been made from the team
surrounding me since we'd taken off from base; I think Kate had
fallen asleep, couldn’t tell with the helmets on. I pulled out the
parachute from under my seat and strapped it on, as did Wolf and
Greg while Kate just lay with her helmet leaning on the glass, I
went to stand up and a hand grabbed my arm, “Wait a few more
minutes, she could use it.” The fact is I wasn’t going to get her
mission ready, I was going to give her an out, try and comfort her
before we dropped, but I nodded and sat back down, “I’m sorry Wolf,
I’m sorry that I didn’t save them.” I looked over to him to see his
head down, “Yeah, me too.” I was waiting for the ‘but’ that never
came, he had no justification for what happened, none of us did.
Greg came and sat with us in silence for a while, “I should’ve been
there… I should have died with my family… I’ve outlived everyone I
have ever known… I thought that time was over.” The rain barraged
our plane, “Three minutes to drop.” I got up and gently shook
Kate’s shoulder, “We’re dropping soon, you can stay if you want.”
She shook her head and put her parachute on, another few minutes
that felt like hours passed and the back doors opened, “Five,” I
checked the magazine on the assault rifle I’d grabbed then clicked
the gun to my chest, “Four,” I took a deep breath as I stood at the
rear end of the plane. The others walked over and I brought them
closer allowing us to touch helmets, “Three,” we split up, “Two,” I
readied myself, “One, feet first guys!” I ran and made the leap,
tucking my limbs together and dove, I closed my eyes, 'I’m alive,
I’m alive and falling', my self-affirmations a desperate and
failing attempt to force only the mission into my mind. The others
shot past me and I spread out my limbs allowing me to have a much
more controlled fall as well as aiding immensely in my aim but even
with my eyes wide open I couldn’t see a thing, the clouds were too
thick and dark. 'Keep breathing, you’re not far now', the wind like
screams, the screams from the halls at the base. 'Focus on the
mission, keep on task'. Once I had broken through the clouds the
house came into view, dark green and blue waves cracking against
the cliff-face it sat on. “Time?”, a green digital display popped
up into the right hand corner of my vision that read five fifty
three, our target was probably still asleep, completely unaware of
what was coming for him. A few hundred feet ahead of me saw black
sheets explode into view as my team deployed their parachutes,
circling downward toward the pool yard while I continued to drop, a
tiny voice trying to convince me to just let myself hit the
cliff-face. Saner heads prevailed and I, admittedly cutting it a
little close at two hundred metres from the house, pulled my own
chute and felt it tug on me as it slowed my descent much more
rapidly than I had expected.

I landed in the pool yard with
the rest of the squad and brought up the communication channel with
Minks, “Drop.” I didn’t wait for a response as we moved for the
back-door, I stepped to the side and Greg kicked it open.
Immediately we split up and searched, a memory of me doing a
similar task in South America entered my mind as I went upstairs
and found the first target sitting up in his bed stretching. I
brought my gun up to my shoulder, “Freeze!” his eyes shot open at
first, then he relaxed and allowed a smile to play across his face,
“I told your sergeant, you can’t touch me, you can’t prove
anything. Nice new uniform by the way, very… Gimp.” He laughed at
his joke and ran his hand through his thinning hair. “You’re
mistaken, I’m not the police.” He looked at me with a confused
expression, “Who are you then?” I smiled under my mask, “Something
much worse.” I began to close the distance and he pulled a pistol
from his bedside drawer, “Don’t come any closer!” I kept walking as
he pulled the trigger and felt the punch which hurt a lot less than
the hunter’s rounds. I stood above him and allowed him to pull the
trigger again several more times before I knocked him out with the
butt of my gun. Footsteps came up from behind me, I expected one of
the team’s voices to come out, “Daddy?” my heart sunk as I turned
to see a little girl, no older than six, in a pink nightgown with
little pandas decorating the front. I turned back to my target and
scooped him over my shoulder before I walked out.

I activated the communication
system again once I stepped out of the room, “Target acquired,
there’s a little girl here. Please advise.” A few seconds later I
got a response, “Secure target, we’ll have someone come for the
child.” Greg came up the stairs and I handed him the unconscious
father, “Affirmative.” I turned back and returned to the room to
see the child crying, I crouched down next to her, “I’ve called
someone, they’re going to pick you and your dad up, stay right
here.” She nodded and I gave her a pat on the shoulder, “Good job.”
I stood up and went to join my team in the kitchen, along with
Minks and his group, “Greg, let’s get changed.” He nodded and
reached into one of the duffel bags, pulled out a pile of clothes
and walked off. I began padding around inside a bag and found my
shoes from before we left as well as socks, jeans, a t-shirt, a zip
up jacket and the chest holster for my two pistols. Satisfied that
I had everything that I required I went into the bathroom and
started to get changed. I managed to get out of the black suit and
into my pants when a knock came, “Come in.” Kate, now no longer
wearing the blacked-out helmet slowly opened the door and slipped
in, pushing it shut behind her, “Thank you,” she walked over and
hugged me, “this is going to hurt for a long time, but thank you
for being here for me. You have no idea how much it means to me.” I
kissed her forehead, “Hey, it’s why I’m here.” I hugged her back
for a while before she was called back outside at which point she
gave me a peck on the lips and disappeared out through the door. I
resumed getting dressed and left feeling more comfortable than I
had in a while.