Chapter Three

    Mercury's eyes opened, and he started thinking that heaven looked a whole lot like his new home.
    "Welcome back, man. I wasn' sure yeh'd survive that stab that guy gave ya."
    "I don't get it," said Mercury. "I thought I was dead. I thought I was just a pure goner. I remember thinking that I would finally be joining my parents and my wife and my son."
    "Hehehe. No such luck, ma friend."
    "Guess not," replied Mercury, still looking bewildered.
    "Well, sorry ta break it to ya, but you bein' alive means we still got a job ta do. Yehre leg is fine now. It took ya about three weeks to wake up, I had ta feed you through one a those needles so that ya wouldn't starve. Stole it from a handy hospital an' ben boilin' et ever since ta let you use it safely."
    "Three weeks? Oh my god. You haven't been on a money job for three weeks? Our money must be running out…"
    "It is. But since yeh're fine now, there's nothing stoppin' us from doin' somethin' tonigh'."
    "You've already got a target picked out, I imagine?"
    "Yep. It's some guy, ben in this town a lon' time. But they say he's got a fortune in gol' lyin' aroun' some hidden passage in his estate."
    "Well, we're thieves, and we're going to find that passage no matter what!"
    "Nice ta see ya back on yehre legs."
    "Yeah, thanks," said Mercury, getting his gear and opening the door. "You comin'?"
    John hastily gathered his gear and followed his partner through the door.
    Fifteen minutes later, they were at the man's house. Mercury was watching the unguarded entrance suspiciously, and John was eyeing it happily.
    "I don't like this," whispered Mercury. "It's too easy. They're expecting us."
    "What are you talking about?"
    "Did you say anything about it at the Llama's Tongue?"
    "Yeah. But, like we tol' ya the firs' day, we got strict rules."
    "Hmmm…. Maybe. I just don't like an empty gate. I'd rather have to fight my way in than walk in through a wide open gate."
    "Don't be ridiculous," John said, stepping forward.
    Mercury grabbed his shoulder and held him back. He shook his head slightly. Then, he pulled out an arrow and pulled his bowstring, arrow nocked. As the arrow sped towards the ground several feet away from the gate, Mercury and John strained their ears for any sounds coming from over the wall.
As the arrow struck, a sudden movement caught their eyes, and they looked up to see two guards rushing out, saying, "Got ya!" to the night air. Mercury tapped John and mouthed No other way. He nocked another arrow and aimed at the first guard's neck. John aimed at the second one. As their arrows flew, Mercury turned away. John, however, watched coldly, having killed guards many times before. The arrows each embedded themselves in the two guards' necks, and their cries pierced the warm night air. Mercury started walking away from the house.
    "What are you doing?" asked John.
    "I'm going back, that's what I'm doing. I don't want to be around when these two are found," answered Mercury, his face pale with sadness at what had just happened.
    "This is our perfec' chance to rob the guy, and yeh're just walkin' away?? What, yeh think I'm going ta let ya do that? I don't think so. I'm invokin' partnership rules, an' one of them is that we have ta work together. Our las' two jobs, you were in control. A claim the right ta preside over this one."
    "Fine," said Mercury, anger suffusing his face. "You got your control. Just remember that any one of us can do that whenever one wants to. I judge this situation wrong, but not too dangerous. If I judge the situation too dangerous, I'm getting the heck out of there, whether you're with me or not. Got it?"
    "Sure."
    They once again neared the gate, but they entered through it this time. As they creeped through the shadows, Mercury felt a growing sense of foreboding. Had he been superstitious, he would have known that the death of the two outside had been a bad omen. But, he didn't believe in such nonsense, even though his gut told him otherwise. The two thieves crept forward and arrived at a side door to the house.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    Mercury began to pick the side door's lock while John watched the surrounding grass for guards. Just as the lock gave way, John saw a guard coming up. He squeezed Mercury's shoulder and they withdrew into the depths of the wall's shadow. As Mercury did this robbing more and more, his assuredness in his ability to hide in the shadows improved, and he was less and less worried about whether or not he would be seen.
    The guard passed by, whistling off-key, and Mercury and John moved forward towards the door. They positioned themselves on either side so that, if there were a light on inside, it wouldn't touch them, and then Mercury opened the door, carefully and slowly. From inside the door came light snores and, Mercury, looking around the door, realized it led to a guest room. Along with John, Mercury quietly crossed the distance to the hallway door.
    As they quietly opened the door, they heard the footfalls and whistling of the hall guard. Chancing a look out of the door, Mercury saw the guard walking down the hallway, his back to them. He motioned to John, and they went across the hall to the cover of another doorframe. John watched as the guard turned around and started walking back. But there was something wrong. The guard's path was taking him so that he would be going right through the door they were hiding in! John's horror grew as the guard neared the door, but Mercury was not affected by such petty emotions anymore. Swishing up his cloak to protect John's eyes and turning his head to protect his own, Mercury threw down a flash bomb. Moments later, the guard was in the same room as the sleeping man, gagged, bound, and knocked out.
    They continued following the pathway through the house, pausing every once in a while and hiding from guards. They went through room after room and found all of them bare of valuables and tapestries. Finally, after going through half the household, Mercury came to a stop in a dark, secluded room.
    "They were expecting us," he told John. "Either that or it was a trap. There is no reason for a man as rich as it seems this guy is to have an empty house, even halfway empty."
    "Let's cover just one more fourth of the house."
    "Fine. One more fourth."
    They set off once again, but Mercury's resolution was failing. His gut told him there was a trap. He started to see danger in every empty room, comfort in a guarded hallway, death in a secluded, lighted kitchen. Finally, after another fourth of the house, they had found a few rings, but nothing to rejoice about.
    "All right. Now we get out," said Mercury, obviously agitated.
    John nodded and followed him out. As they exited through the front gate, he spoke.
    "Well, I ain't a-sayin' a thing ta no one else in the Llama's Tongue pub 'gain."
    "I don't think that's the best of our options," replied Mercury thoughtfully. "I think the best thing we could do would be to say someone in the Llama's Pub betrayed us. When I first arrived there, I got the idea it was a pretty serious rule, the one about no betrayal. If someone broke it, they'd be in pretty serious trouble."
    "You got that right."

    The next day, at the Llama's pub, Mercury addressed the entire room.
    "May I have your attention, please!" he said, rapping the table with his knuckles. "Thank you. I have an announcement to make." Mercury paused, waiting until all the eyes in the pub were on him. "Someone has broken the Llama's Tongue pub's code of honor. Someone has betrayed me and John." Mercury stopped talking and listened as the sudden silence filled with angry murmurs. Finally, the bartender spoke.
    "As good as you may be to figure these things out Merc, tha's a serious accusation you're makin' there."
    "I know. But John only spoke here of the job we were going to do yesterday."
    "An'?"
    "Three-fourths of the house was empty, and there were no guards outside the gate. They were waiting for us inside instead. We had to kill both of them. And, mind you, the only reason I didn't say the whole house was devoid of riches is because after three-fourths we decided to leave the obvious trap."
    "That sur do soun' like you were set up. A' right'. Ya know who it is? Thief is on'y the secon' time I've had ta deal with this, so A'm improvisin'."
    "I have no idea who it is. But I'm planning on finding out," Mercury replied. "Hopefully, with your help," he said pointedly.
    "Anyone wanna step for'ard an' admit ta havin' done this? It'll save yar life."
    No one stepped anywhere.
    "A' righ' then. Everyone here is ta look fer this man. Un'erstood? 'Member, he migh' get you nex'."
    Suddenly, a man got up and tore out of the pub. The bartender didn't have to say anything; Mercury was already out of the door within moments, several others close behind.
    The man was visible from quite far away, but Mercury was nowhere to be seen. The men from the pub ran after the other as fast as they could, but it seemed he had too big of a head start. Out of nowhere, however, a dark shape leaped out and hit the running figure.
Mercury got up and signaled the men from the pub that he was fine. As they ran up, panting, they saw the other man sprawled on the ground. John recovered his breath first.
    "How… how…" he tried to ask, weakly gesturing towards the unconscious man.
    "As much as you've robbed from the city's dwellers, you clearly don't have as much of a thief's instincts as you pretend to. There's an alternate, quicker way to get here from the pub. A diagonal street that leads here faster than the turns you took."
    They nodded appreciatively, and then began to walk back towards the pub.
    "Hey! Guys! Remember the faster way? Follow me," Mercury said.
    The men turned around, chuckling as much as their breath allowed them to, and followed Mercury.
    When they arrived at the pub, the bartender was outside, anxiously waiting for news of the chase. When he saw Mercury had him slung across his shoulder, he sighed in relief. He helped Mercury take him inside and lay him on a clean table. Mercury motioned that he alone wanted to speak to him, so the bartender withdrew into the crowd surrounding the table. The man's eyes fluttered open, and focused. An expression of horror covered his face as he sat up and realized where he was.
    "Why?" Mercury whispered, almost inaudibly.
    The man's face became defiant. "Yeh're a poser. Damned idiot. I'm the best, not you. Jesus. Yeh think yeh're so great? Well, yeh're not. 'Mercury did this today' and 'Didja hear who Mercury robbed today' is all I hear 'round here anymore."
    "An acute case of jealousy, huh? Why didn't you just challenge me to a fight?"
    "You were jus' fresh from a stomach woun'. I'd be considered a cowar'."
    "Aaah. So the next best thing was for me either to fail a job, and have my reputation ruined, or that I died while on a job, and you become the best again?" The man nodded, "But…" continued Mercury, "You weren't expecting that I realize that someone set us up." The man scowled. "Okay. Leave him alone." The entire pub, including the man, looked at him, amazed. "What's wrong? I got betrayed, and I have decided," Mercury said, and the pub resumed its usual duties.
As they exited the Llama's Tongue, John spoke.
    "His jealousy ain't disappeared, ya know. If anythin', its even stronger."
    "I know. But at least I know who it is."
    The rest of the journey was spent in silence. John was looking incredibly mad that he'd been betrayed. Mercury's mind, however, was running through the ways the other man could try to kill him again. As many times as he ran through previous visits to the Llama's Tongue, Mercury could not sense any antipathy from that particular person. Yet he continued to check his memories, over and over and over again, even when they arrived at their house and he lay on the couch. John noticed there was something wrong.
    "Wha's goin' on?" he asked.
    "Huh?" said Mercury, looking up from the ground, his train of thought broken.
    "Wha's goin' on?" John asked again.
    "Oh… nothing. It's just… nothing," Mercury said.
    "Right, if there's nothin' wrong with you, I'm not human."
    "You aren't?" asked Mercury with mock surprise. John looked at him with a sarcastic smile, but that was clearly the end of the conversation.

Onward to Chapter FOUR-->