Evalon

by KNRY

Chapter 7

“Okay, so…what exactly am I looking at here?”

"Just wait for it."

White was sick of this crap. If people wanted to waste more of his time with bullshit like this, his mood wasn't helped by the fact that those people would never get to a damn point, of any conversation, as long as they had them. Javo did it, all the time. It really got under his skin, quite quickly. And Levin wasn't exactly winning him over at this point.

"Look, I don't know what to expect from you. As far as I'm concerned, I should just blast your brains out here and now, and be done with this. I enjoyed the racking car chase; my brain feels like a bruised peach, and throbbing like hell. So no, how about lets not wait, and you just tell me what the hell this is supposed to be?"

Levin wasn't watching. His eyes were on the screen flowing its ethereal light into his eyes. The kid was like every other techy punk in this city. Vincent himself was sick to death of Javo telling him over dinner about how improbable some functions of machinery or computer advancement were either physically impossible or technically improbable to human technology, yet it with ease they would incase them within those dumb movies that she watched. Usually, Vincent would just pretend to listen, and swirl his watery macaroni and cheese.

Right about now, his irritation was reaching a peak with all this waiting. Vincent couldn't stand patience. He couldn't stand seeing lines of people. All it ever did was make him want to be busy. Work was the only thing that ever kept him going, kept him living. Hell, it was a living. Deliveries was something that he enjoyed, and although there was excitement always around the corner when Dante was involved, Vincent didn't think that his ageing body could take anymore of the manager's "rough-and-tumble" jobs he would keep saving for him.

Vincent watched Levin double-click on the file with his mouse. "Here it is."

As the file loaded, instead of the mouse switching to a standard hourglass like most computers, Levin's turned into a little Sonic The Hedgehog, running in fast in place. "You've got to be kidding me..."

"What? Sonic is cool, man." Levin was grinning like a child. He's like some kind of kid. Drives like a maniac, and now I know were they all get it from. Vincent silently cursed video games, and his addicted youth. Yet the truth stood that a lot of paramedics and military training programs enlisted certain games as real VR training simulations.

But as a veteran, Vincent would tell you, virtual is nothing like real combat.

The file finished, and popped up. "Here it is! Watch." Levin tapped enter, and the file opened up. Vincent pulled a nearby crate on the wall of the shed. On the other side was their car, its tires deep in the snow. They had lost those other bastards near a one way street, that Levin new for a fact, wasn't exactly a one way street after all. He had pulled a left near the bend, making a hard turn, and dissapearing through an open warehouse to the other end of it. From there, they were back on the main street, and Levin had floored it to this place. It was some sort of shed, not really big, but it was somewhat warm. Someone had installed a run of the mill heating system that comprised of steam through large pipes. Levin apologized for it being so primitive, but Vincent retorted, "Son, the most reliable machines in the world are usually primitive."

Now he was scooting up to the new Zinth Mac laptop that Levin had stationed upon some upturned barrels. The kid scooted to the side, grinning like an idiot underneath that hat and hair. "Check this out old man."

Vincent took the kid's arm, and Levin looked back, his smile gone. "Sorry man...yow!" He pulled away, holding his arm in his other. "Jesus, what'd you do that for? God that hurts..." Vincent smiled plainly, looking at the screen.

"Just showin' ya not to go callin people old, kid."

"Yeah whatever. Would you just look at the damn screen?"

A myriad of lines intersecting space in a black curtain. Well, that was an understatement. It was a 3-Dimensional rendering of a complex that Levin told him he was going to have to break into.

But essentially, Levin said, he was going to have to make it look like someone robbed the place. The real goal, in reality, was to just purposefully set off the security alarm.

"We use SilverFox to get the systems down, and get what we need. You just need to be the distraction."

Vincent had never been this appalled in his life. Him? A distraction? That was it. That was the seriousness of all this. "With all this car-chase b.s., and my gun to your head, you end up telling me that all I'm doing is being a decoy?" Now he was really pissed.

But Levin just looked at him like he was the dumbest guy in the world. "Are you serious? Do you even know where your breaking in?" Vincent was already terse.

"No. Maybe you should have thought of telling me before I started thinking of pulling out Mr. Smiley..." He undid his holster. Levin watched, but his expression didn't seem to realize what he meant.

"Here." Cut-off gloves marked a small box that contained the information of the complex. Vincent read it:

SNOW MANUFACTURING DRUG AND CO.

Vincent turned around off his seat, and walked away from the laptop. "Go fuck that! There no way in hell I'm going in there!"

He knew what Dante wanted. That son-of-a-bitch. Distraction my ass!

And now the kid was following him. "Hey, wait! Where are you goin?!"

Vincent White turned around, and it seemed that finally, something in his eyes had gotten through to the little teenaged punk. "Listen...kid...I've killed quite a few in my day, but I am not a dumbass. Dante knows exactly what that drug does to a guy like me, and he's none too keen about forcing people into situations that benefit him, yet always get his employees killed, or worse, taken by the cops. Because everyone knows what happens to you when incarcerated for doing one of Dante's jobs...well, at least I got the idea a long time ago.

But you," he pulled out his gun to accentuate his point. "You are just a kid, and you got a lotta life ahead of ya son. I'd hate to see it wasted on a pike for some pathetic, bloody suit like Dante."

Levin was indignant. They all are. "Fuck you man, I know what I'm getting into." Kids like that are no good reasoning with. He turned and left, not caring really whether Levin listened to him or not.

"Just take my advice and get out. Find another job. I know its hard, but just find another." He cracked open the shed, and the wind rushed through the small shed like ice.

The car was gone.

Shit.

It's harder for bullets to pierce steel thats been frozen. Around this time, Vincent rarely cared when the sparks of gunfire danced at his feet and pounded against the steel at his shoulder whilst shutting the door back down as fast as he could. He turned to see Levin going down, cursing and holding down a squirt of red with his hands. Vincent said it again. Shit.

He ran to the kid, helping him with the wound. Damn you, Dante.

"Can you keep it down...God, c'mon." He took the kid's hat off, and a mess of blonde hair flared around his head. Vincent pushed the hat down hard upon the wound. Levin screamed in pain. Damn it. Today of all days.

He pulled the kids belt off, and tied it around his leg. After it was secured, he helped him up, and looked around for a place to get out. He didn't remember locking the shed door, so why weren't they opening it now and gunning them down? They probably had thought that he had. Mistake on his part...and theirs...not calling his bluff. Vincent didn't think it would last, not if there was no way out of this place. He tried dragging the kid to the side of the wall, and asked him again.

"Is there a way out of here, I said!?"

Levin mumbled, "Yeah..." Of course, the kid had never been shot before. His face was draining of color, and Vincent could clearly see the telltale signs of shock running through him. This looked like it was ending up to be all kinds of bad.

"There..." Levin pointed up at the sky-light, 20 feet above, snow piled up on its glass.

Bad enough, he thought with a grimace.