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Chapter Two
Two days later, they had chosen a target.
A new 'noble,' one might call him, had recently bought up much of the
farmland in the area, so that the farmers were now his employees. Rumor
had it that he was paranoid, and maintained all of his wealth inside
a high-security vault in the heart of his mansion. "Money to finally
bury my wife and son," Mercury had said.
After two weeks' worth of training, John had gotten the
hang of 'shadow robbing,' as Mercury had nicknamed it. When the day
of the job came, Mercury was already sure that they'd be partners.
As they arrived at the site of the mansion, they saw three
guards at the gate.
"There's no way we getting' past that without bein' noticed,"
whispered John.
Mercury made an impatient sign to be quiet. Then, he pointed
to the two of them and the bows. He mimed shooting at the wall and road
at the same time, far away from the guards. John and Mercury each nocked
an arrow. As they let the arrows fly, John got behind Mercury and they
sneaked closer and closer to the gate. The arrows struck wall and road,
making a loud racket. All three of the guards moved towards the commotion.
The third one didn't notice when this key ring was removed, or when
it was put back.
Once inside, the two thieves looked for the front entrance.
When they found it, they confirmed he was paranoid. Six guard posts
lined the path to the main entrance, and there was no way around them.
The access was from inside the building, and the posts themselves were
sunk into the stone walls. The lights, however, were electric. Mercury
realized that it was only a matter of finding the switch and turning
the lights off. He motioned John back.
"This guy probably has the switch for those lights inside.
We're going to have to break the lights with arrows," he whispered.
"But we'll alert every guard there!" said John.
"Yes. But we have the skill to avoid them, given the cover
of shadow."
"True. All right."
They stepped forward and drew their bows, ready to fire
at the first two lamps.
Out of nowhere, one of the guards spoke.
"Time for a switch. Remember, the first four leave and
the second two go when the others've been replaced," he said.
Mercury put his bow down and John followed suit. They
listened to the first four pairs of feet leave. Then, they both let
their arrows fly. The two lamps at the remaining guard posts were destroyed
in a shatter of glass. The two guards had their guns out within moments,
and their eyes were probing the newly released darkness. Their eyes,
however, could not discern the two dark figures sneaking between them.
Mercury and John emerged from the darkness and immediately
set to work on the door. Mercury was carefully picking the complex lock
while John's eyes and ears probed their surroundings for any sign of
guards. As Mercury's hands worked quickly, John heard footsteps on the
other side of the door. He tapped Mercury on the shoulder and Mercury
immediately ceased his picking and pressed his own ear to the door.
With a small gesture from Mercury, both of them pulled back and melted
into the shadows.
The door opened and two guards came out. They advanced
slowly, guns in hand. Their breath came hard, and their pupils were
dilated with fear. Mercury registered this and started wondering why
they would be so afraid. Suddenly, three figures dropped on the two
guards and viciously killed them. Mercury got a long look at one's face
and had a glimmer of recognition. Then, it connected. It was Tommy,
his old friend from the Hooverville. Just as suddenly as they dropped,
the three figures launched themselves into the air and disappeared on
the roof.
Mercury motioned to John and they carefully stepped over
the guards' bodies. Once inside the mansion, Mercury pulled out a map.
"Where'd ya get that from?" asked John.
"I have my sources," replied Mercury. "They'll make sure
that if we become partners, you won't decide to run away from the obligation.
Having me will be extremely valuable."
John smiled at the reason and looked over Mercury's shoulder
at the map.
After four hallways and twenty guards
(four of them knocked out), Mercury and John had finally arrived at
the vault. John wiped his forehead clean of sweat with his cloak as
they came to a stop in front of the door.
"The map stops the details here," said Mercury.
"Figures," John muttered under his breath.
Mercury darted around the door, trying to see how the
mechanism worked. Finally, he tapped the door lightly. An echoing clang
rang out, but Mercury wasn't paying attention. Running his hand across
the edges of the door, he inserted his lock picks into the keyhole concealed
on the side of the door. John marveled at the skill needed to find such
a well-hidden lock.
As the metal door opened, Mercury's hand snaked in
and turned the light inside the room off. They entered slowly, soundlessly,
into the dark room, and John caught sight of the vault locking mechanism.
He let off a sigh of exasperation and turned to Mercury.
"She's all yours, Merc. I got no idear how ta unlock this
baby."
"Neither do I," came Mercury's quiet reply. "But I do
know how to open it."
Reaching into his cloak, he pulled out a stick of dynamite.
"I thought we were doing this without fighting our way
out..?" said John pointedly.
"We are. In about thirty seconds, a timed batch of dynamite
will explode on the other side of the house. No one'll be here to hear
this."
After thirty seconds came the loud detonation of the dynamite.
Mercury waited twenty seconds, planted the stick of explosive , and
followed John out of the room. Once the metal door was shut, Mercury
counted down in his head: three… two… one… BANG!!
John entered first, and saw the vault door hanging wide
open. While he stood gaping, Mercury rushed in, took all of the valuables
they could carry, and grabbed John by the shoulder.
"Let's go before they come back to their posts looking
for thieves," he said.
The next morning, John was gazing happily at the loot
they had gathered. Mercury, however, had an unfocused expression. After
a few minutes, his thoughts seemed to snap back to the present.
"Tomorrow night, our job description is getting a temporary
change," he said.
"How so?" asked John, surprised.
"We're going to be doing some spying."
This surprised John so much that he actually looked away
from the loot and at Mercury.
"Who on?" he managed to ask.
"One of the area's Hoovervilles. You remember what happened
yesterday at the front door?"
"Yeah," John answered, shuddering at the memory. "Terrible
stuff, those two murders."
"Yes, but I recognized one of the murderers. An old friend
named Tommy. We gotta see what's going on."
"What's goin' on? They're killin' people, that's what!"
John exclaimed.
"Do you know why?"
"Well…. No."
"Well, we're gonna find out. But we gotta be careful.
I'm wanted for murder, even though I haven't done anything up 'til now."
The next night, at 8:00, they were already
outside Tommy's straw shack. John was a home away, watching the entrance
from the cover of a patch of shadows. Mercury was next to the shack,
ready to eavesdrop when the time came.
John watched as Tommy approached the shack, and gave he
off a low whistle. Mercury heard it, and made sure he was properly concealed.
Two of Tommy's friends soon arrived, and Tommy spoke.
"Another two of those bastards taken down last night.
We makin' good progress. I'm jus' not so happy that we gotta blame it
all on poor Merc."
"I doan' really care. Merc's a sturdy fella, he can handle
them po-lice men. He already did, I heard. 'Sides, its for the greater
good. We takin' down those idiots that are persecutin' us!" a voice
said.
"Shut yer trap Michael. Do ya even know what persecutin'
means?"
The other voice didn't answer. Just then, however, a bit
surprised at the reason he was wanted for murder, Mercury leaned too
close to the shack.
"They's somun watchin' us, Tommy," Michael said.
Tommy came out of the tent and spotted Mercury.
"I'm sorry ye had ta do that, Merc. Now we gotta kill
ya."
"I don't think so, Tommy," replied Mercury, pulling out
his dagger.
Tommy took out his, and they started circling each other.
Finally, Tommy and his friends rushed at him. For all of Mercury's skill
with the dagger, he couldn't hold off three men at the same time. He
caught a glimpse of John rushing towards them as he severely, but not
mortally, injured Tommy. Then, he felt a searing pain in his side, and
looked down to see a dagger being twisted and pulled out. Mercury collapsed,
and his world began to darken. He watched as John danced out of the
other two men's reach, and made his way into a good position. He watched
as John injured one, then the other, but his world was darkening steadily.
His last conscious thought was that he would finally be joining his
father, his mother, and his wife and son.