Lost to the wind

[Serpentis]

Had it not been for the fantastic sake at the bar on New Tokyo main landing zone, he would’ve stayed on the Lindwyrm, the rest of the crew, save Karl, were out taking some R&R. Sergei however, was sitting at a table, drinking, reading up on some local news, “Heinrich mentioned jump drives..” he thought to himself and scoured the news, there were some mentions of Kishiro working on such devices, he tapped into a thread on the news report and read the many comments regarding the possible breakthrough.
Sergei chuckled to himself at the many outcries of fear for the technology, some Kusari citizens believed that activating such devices will tear holes into the fabric of the universe, “That’s kind of the point, it’s a jump drive…” he sighed and drank the rest of the sake. He stayed at the bar for some time, then ended up in a sushi restaurant, something he never had before, after eating a few he decided it was actually really good. On the way back to the ship, he walked past some clothing stores, he took a look at Kusari fashion, he wasn’t sold on them, too fancy.
At the end of his walk he came across Jurgen and another crew member named Klaus, Sergei nodded at them, “Jurgen, Klaus, had a good time?”. The two men turned and smiled wide, obviously somewhat intoxicated, “Yes sir, we were just going to continue drinking in the mess hall, if you want to join us?”. Sergei saw that they had a bag with some bottles of soju and sake, he chuckled and grinned at them, “I’m good, but where’s the rest?”, the two chuckled and grinned at each other then at Sergei, “The rest are at a strip club in the lower district.”. Sergei quirked an eyebrow at them, “Even Alice?” and the two laughed at that, “She was excited!”, Sergei just shook his head, “Come on, let’s head onboard, you can drag Karl with you.”.

As the others drank in the mess hall, Sergei was in his quarters and continued to read the news and checked some less than normal channels, there was a lot of talk about an amassing of Liberty Navy vessels active in New York the other day and that there had been some rumors that Kusari navy ships were seen more often than usual, patrolling around Kusari space. He tapped away on the tablet and found himself yawning and felt that a nice nap would do him good, then, his personal console rang, “Incoming transmission..” he walked over to the console and checked the ID of the call, “Unknown.”, that doesn’t bode well, he accepts the call.
The person that appeared on the screen was the last person he’d ever expect to call him, “Marlon?”, he blinked at the rugged older man that he remembered well from his days in the Coalition, “What the he-”, he got cut off, the man spoke with a deep voice, “I hear you go by Sergei now?”. There were a few moments where Sergei didn’t know what to say or do, at the end he just went, “Yeah, that’s what I chose.”, Marlon, the stone-faced man just looked into the camera, then smiled lightly. “Sergei it is.”., the smile turned into a frown, “I have a request.”., Sergei tilted his head, “Request?”, Marlon nodded, “We got a ping from a source on New Tokyo that you had landed, I need you to-”., Sergei had had enough, “Stop..”,. There was a long pause as Marlon stared at the camera, “This is getting annoying now, this is the second time in two days that I’ve been ‘asked’ to do something and before that, I was doing another job, it’s getting ridiculous and I am sick of it. Marlon, you know I am not part of the Coalition, why ask me? Why not one of your other spies on New Tokyo?”.
Marlon frowned, “Because you were a commissar of the Coalition, that means something, to me at least and used to, to you.”., Sergei frowned and then let out a tired sigh, “What do you want me to do?”. That brought a small smile to Marlon’s lips, “We need another agent that is operating on New Tokyo gone, he has sniffed out one of our operatives who is hiding right now in the lower levels of Saji district. I’ll send the details I have, including name and face. We need this done today. I’ll pay you of course, a hundred thousand at completion. Do you accept?”.. Sergei thought it over, it could give him an opening to the Coalition again. “Yeah, I’m in.”, Marlon nodded at the camera and moments later a file came through the net onto his console, he transferred it to his tablet and read the information. “He’s in the warehouse district, most likely in one of the smaller abandoned ones, looking for our agent. He isn’t alone, but shouldn’t be a problem for you.”.
Sergei looked it over, Hajima Tanaka, former Kusari navy officer, turned intelligence agent according to the information the Coalition had stolen. “Dispose of the body?” Sergei asked, Marlon nodded, “Yes, get rid of the body somehow, there should be some compactors down in the lower levels, as long as it can’t be identified we are happy.”.. Sergei finished looking through the data on Hajima and then looked at the screen at Marlon, “I’ll go now, hopefully won’t take too long.”. A few seconds later, Marlon smiled, “Good to have you back, Sergei.”. and closed the channel.
Sergei sat there for a long time, at least half an hour, just thinking, “Do I want to go back?”, he frowned, he just recently thought that he wanted his old life back, he looked around him at the walls and ceiling of his quarters. He decided to think more about this at a later time, he walked to the gun locker and withdrew a pistol and six magazines along with a knife, he grabbed another jacket, a hat and a scarf, in case of cameras. As he walked into the mess hall, he saw the crew drinking and having fun, he smiled and then walked over to Karl, “Hey, gonna head out for a few hours, keep an eye on things, if you can.” he slapped his back and Karl gave a thumbs up.

It took him an hour to get to the lower levels and to the Saji district, he noticed the lack of people on the streets and he realized that he had a lot of warehouses to go through, but he had a trick up his sleeve. He pulled out a device from his jacket, a communications scanner, which also worked to block outgoing ones. He activated it and started walking around. It took him another hour to get a ping, it was an old industrial warehouse, the door was locked, but no cameras were outside. He checked the lock, “Standard lock, easy to break.” he thought and cracked open the door panel and checked the wiring, after a few minutes he got it open.
He pulled out his gun and walked in, slowly and silently, he saw a light from the office on the far end of the warehouse and he heard voices. They were speaking Kusari and he frowned and sneaked closer, he got a view of three people, two men in black clothes and another in a suit, the man in the suit fit the picture of Hajima in the file. He took a closer look at the two others, each carrying pistols and Tanaka himself had a submachine gun, Sergei frowned. He tried to listen in, but they were still talking in Kusari, he moved over to another set of crates, close to the three men and waited for a shot. Then, one of the men turned and looked to the other side of the warehouse, “Sh*t, he might see the door.”. Sergei pulled his pistol and flipped the safety off and pulled his knife from his boot, one of the men started walking through the warehouse, Sergei followed him. When the man walked behind some tall boxes he came up behind him and slit his throat. There was that gurgle of a man dying and the attempt to make a sound, but there was none and never will again. He gently lowered the man onto the floor and listened for any movement, they just continued to talk.
He headed back to the crates he was at before and took a look, “I can take them, they have no idea I was there, but they’ll notic-” the other man turned and shouted, “Hiroko, nanishiteruno?”, Sergei cursed and decided it was time to act, he leaned around the corner, aiming his pistol at the other man, straight at his head and took the shot, he made a hard thud as he dropped to the floor, but Hajima was ready with his own pistol and had ascertained where Sergei was and started shooting. Sergei hid behind the crate, but it was a temporary cover, he tumbled to his right and took cover behind a steel box, Hajima had taken cover behind a crate as well and was peaking out every once in a while, “You doing the Coalitions dirty work, Gaijin?”, Sergei frowned,
“Just doing a job, would be easier if you just stood up and let me shoot you, f*ckface.”. Sergei leaned and waited for a chance, Hajima peaked and he took the shot, the bullet hit the crate and ricocheted off it, missing the man’s head by a centimeter. He could hear the man, most likely cursing, taking the opportunity, Sergei ran towards Hajima’s crate and tackled the top crate down and there was a loud crash as Hajima was pushed onto the ground, Sergei ran around and aimed the gun down at the agent, the man just looked up at Sergei and sighed, “Do it.”, Sergei shrugged and shot him between the eyes. He’s killed a lot of people in his life, eventually you stop caring. He managed to place all three bodies in a large crate and used a lift to move it out of the warehouse, eventually finding a compactor in another abandoned facility, the machine was still functioning and Sergei dropped the crate into it and let it crush the crate and bodies within.

As Sergei came back to the Lindwyrm, he saw Alice and another man kissing outside of the landing pad, Sergei smirked and winked at her as he passed them. As he walked past the mess hall he saw that the crew had left, most likely headed to their bunks. He got out of his outfit and placed the gun back into the locker, sitting down at his desk he looked at the console for a while, he saw the frequency to Marlon and froze, “Did I really want back?”, it was time to face the truth, “I don’t, not right now.” and opened a channel, Marlon looked as stone-faced as ever, “It is done?”., Sergei just nodded, “Yep, bodies are mangled and unrecognizable, as requested.”. Marlon looked to the side and after a few seconds, Sergei’s tablet pinged from getting a credit transfer, he looked at the screen, “There, done, was nice doing business with you.” and was moments away from closing the call when Marlon said “Come by Omega 52 some day, meet some people.”., Sergei just shrugged, “Maybe, we’ll see, goodbye, Marlon.” and he closed the call. Sergei leaned back in his chair and let out a heavy sigh.

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