CH - 65

There were three guards in the center of the room. One sitting in his desk, going at the paperwork, two over to the side talking to each other and slacking off. "I only see three," Halcen said to Fein.

"Let me check." Fein focused for a moment and listened and sniffed the air. He looked to Halcen and said "There are three more asleep in the bunks and two walking around downstairs."

"Where is Bo's family?"

"I don't know. Acting like I know what they smell like, what's wrong with you? We go downstairs and look, is how we find out. Shit man."

"Alright, alright." He looked back to the guards in the center of the room. "So we have eight total. We need to take these three down first, and silently, or we end up getting the shaft from the others."

"Okay, so how do we do that?"

"Smoke bomb." Halcen pulled his bag open and took a fist sized metal ball from it. "Here we go." This was a little gift from Jin. He was very good at tinkering with technology.

Fein looked at him and shrugged.

"Once it goes off, we have to be quick, or they'll arouse suspicion."

"Let's go."

Halcen rolled the little metal contraption from their cover to where the fat dude sat at his desk. He looked down when he heard the clink of the metal on the floor.

"What the hell?"

Psssssssttt.

A cloud of white smoke suffocated the roof with very little noise. The three guards went on alert, but it was over before they even moved. Halcen was behind the man sitting in the desk and snapped his neck. Fein and Shira took down the two standing in the back and tore their throats out. Shira's white fur on her face and neck stained with red blood. They were careful when they let the bodies fall though, setting them down gently so as not to let the noise alert the others. They sat patiently to let the smoke dissipate. Nobody else had noticed.

"Pst!" came a voice from the other side of the jail.

Halcen looked over to see another man in the cells, motioning to him.

"Hey," he said, like he was trying to be quiet.

"Shhh," Halcen said, trying to keep him from alerting the guards.

"Come here," he whispered.

Halcen looked to Fein, who just shrugged. Halcen looked to the guard's bunkroom to make sure they were still asleep. He didn't hear anybody moving. He walked slowly toward the man's cell. When he got there, he said. "What do you want?"

The man walked up close to the cage bars. "Take me with you. I can help," he said walking to the cell's metal wall.

"You don't even know where we're going," Halcen said. "How do I know you'd be any help? You already got captured once."

"I guess I could just shout and let the guards know what's going on."

Halcen looked in the man's eyes. "You drive a hard bargain. Where are the keys?"

"They're hanging up over there," he motioned his head to a lockbox sitting next to an emergency ax and a fire extinguisher. "The cell keys are in there."

"Alright, thanks," Halcen said, then stabbed the man in the stomach through the metal bar. Halcen held him tight to make sure he didn't escape.

He groaned in surprise.

"Don't mess with my plans," Halcen whispered.

Then the light drained from the man's eyes as his blood loss was too much. His body slunked against the cold metal bars. Halcen walked away.

Fein looked at him incredulously. "That didn't seem necessary."

"He was going to alert the guards."

"We could have just let him out."

"And risk him stabbing us in the back? Why do you think he's in here? If he's idiotic enough to blackmail me, and get caught for whatever it was he got caught for, do you think he's gonna play it straight with us?"

"I guess not," Fein growled.

"Now grab those keys. I'm gonna take out the guards that are asleep." Halcen opened the bunkroom door and slinked over the floor in a crouch. He located the first guard and carefully laid his knife against the man's throat, then dug down with ferocity, spilling blood. His eyes jolted open and body died in shock. Halcen envied the man his peaceful death. He then went on to the next two bunks and knelt between the two sleeping guards. He took two daggers, one in each hand, and lined up the blade tips to their throats, then stabbed straight down. Blood spurted from their necks like a popping zit. Halcen waited to be sure they were dead before moving on.

He returned to the other room after cleaning his knives and checked on Fein and Shira. "Ready?"