The Lost Sentinel

15 Making an army.

Tan

Rhine drops as off a few blocks from Laz’s hide out. It isn’t much of a walk, but I am wary of meeting up with more aliens. Well, not so soon after their last attack.

Besides, I don’t want to spook Laz any more than he already is, because if he’s hiding here in the shady party of Johannesburg…he’s already spooked.

Laz believes that trouble doesn’t go where trouble is. And so he believes hiding on the most crime infested place, meant that his enemies wont risk coming for him there.

I never could understand that, because why hide where people don’t mind committing crimes for nothing.

What would happen if someone gave them an incentive? I shake my head at Laz’s ridiculous thinking. But ridiculous or not…I need him.

We walk to the building I know he’s hiding in.

We get inside the building, and take the flight of stairs to the fifth floor. The stairs are semi dark and dirty – rubbish litters the ground, and we have to step over a few people who are passed out along the way.

Hanika makes a disgusted sound.

“Whatever you’re thinking, don’t say it,” I tell her as I come to a stop in front of the flat, I know belongs to Laz.

Hanika glowers at me, but she doesn’t say anything.

I knock on the door, and wait for Laz to answer. A few minutes go by without any answer. I knock again this time, making sure to punch the wooden door shouting his name out loud for all to hear.

“Stop that!” he shouts from inside. And then I hear the locks rattling open.

The door is yanked open and Laz sticks his head out as if to see who might have heard me.

“Are you trying to get me killed. No one knows that I am here,” he says looking at Hanika, and then at me. He does a double table as if he’s just realized that a beautiful woman was standing right there in front of his door.

His eyes crawl from the top of her head, to her shoes.

He can’t hide his shock and instant interest.

Nerds, I think shaking my head. I push him inside easily, as he’s not a big guy. Laz is one of those guys who are short and skinny.

He looks more like a kid than the twenty-five-year-old man I know him to be.

“Hey,” he says pushing my hand away. Hanika walks into the flat right behind me. We walk into a room that is a million miles different from the building that it is in. Monitors take up one wall, and in another there is a large couch in front of a very large tv screen. There are two doors to the side where there is a small kitchen, which I assume lead into the bathroom and the bedroom.

The flat is small, but I believe that Laz choose it for that very purpose. No one would assume that an art thief stayed in a very small flat with all the money he makes.

I silently walk around the flat, inspecting this or that ignoring Laz’s expectant stare.

“How the hell did you find me anyway?” he asks after a very long silence.  I turn to look at him over my shoulder from staring at the last item I stole on our last job.

“So you were the  client, huh?” I ask him picking up the toy soldier, he’d raved about when he convinced Mak and I to steal it from a private collector. It was limited edition and very expensive.

I hold the toy in my hand, pulling the arms a little as I turn fully to face Laz.

He winces staring at his precious toy, but he says nothing.

I pull on it again, and watch a vein start to throb on his temple.

“Stop playing games,” Hanika says staring at me.

“Fine,” I say dropping the toy from where I picked it up. “I need your help with something,” I say, but Laz shakes his head before I can finish. “It might be worth your while.”

“Is it dangerous?” he asks folding his arms across his chest.

“Very, but the things I am looking for are very rare, expensive and very ancient. And I know where all of them are, but I can’t get to them because they are these monsters chasing me. And I need them,” I say not sure what to tell him.

Laz frowns.

I clench my jaw, because I know everything I’ve said sounds vague, but I don’t know how to tell him that there is an alien invasion, and we are all going to die, if there is an alien verses humans kind of fight.

Okay maybe I should have said that.

“Does it have something to do with the explosion at our last job?” Laz asks staring at me with fear tinged eyes. “because I saw those rubbery fuckers, they almost took my head off when I tried to get to you and Mak.” he looks behind me at the closed door. “Where is Mak? You two are inseparable.”

I blink the tears that suddenly fill my eyes at the mention of my friend.

Yeah, we were inseparable.

“Mak is dead,” I say, putting my hand into my pocket going for the coin, but it’s not there. A cold feeling settles on me as I think that I might have lost it. And then I remember placing it on the bedside table.

Shit…I need to get this done quickly. I might be a sitting duck here. The coin warned me whenever the aliens were near.

Now, I left my alarm system back in the ship.

Laz stares at me with shock in his eyes.

“He’s dead,” he paces to the side of the kitchen and then pours himself a glass of water.

“I need your help, so Mak wouldn’t have died in vain,” I say. He turns to me, but doesn’t say anything.

“What do you need the artefacts for? It’s not like you need money,” he asks.

Yeah, I forgot that I didn’t tell him the reasons behind the big search.

“I need the power they hold so I can fight the aliens.” I say the simplest way I can tell him. I lift my right hand, showing him the black strips that wrap around my fingers now to my wrist. I don’t normally brandish my hand like this, since people always laughed at me, but now I know what the strips are for. It’s all the power that lives and breathes inside me.

Laz stares at my hand. He’s never really seen my hand since I wore my glove around him. Now, he stares at it with fascination in his eyes. 

“You’re saying you’re some kind of super hero or something,” he says walking back to stand in front of me. His fascination grows.

“No. I am reincarnation of a very powerful sentinel, he fought the aliens before, now I need to get to his level so that we can all survive.”

“What do you mean all survive?”

“You said he was clever and he could help us,” Hanika growls out coming to stand in front of Laz. “He’s wasting our time, asking stupid questions. Are you going to help or not?”

“Yeah, yeah…I was just…” Laz says visibly swallowing.

Hanika can be scary.

“Right. Let’s go then,” she says walking to the door. Laz and I stare at her. She turns when she realizes that we are not following her. “What?”

“He has to pack his equipment,” I tell her shaking my head at her. 

Why does she think I want Laz?

Because he has some super computers that can do wonders in finding precious things.

With Laz I won’t have to guess where the artefacts are. I will know.

“I have everything in my track actually. I was thinking of where I could run to when I received your email,” Laz says clapping his hands. “I am good to go.”

“Let’s go then,” Hanika says opening the door. Laz rushes around the room gathering the things he wanted to take with him too.

He slings his jacket over his shoulders and within minutes we were walking out of his flat.

“I need you to recruit some of my competition. I need more people looking for the stuff, so that we can cut the search time in half,” I tell Laz as we walk down the stairs.

“That’s no problem, as long as you make it worth their while, most of them will be in. I am parked back there. I never go through the front, you know that,” he says pointing to the back. We follow him there, and come to stop at the back of a Nissan NV passenger van with tinted windows.

“What happened to your other van?” I ask him as he slides the door open. Hanika climbs inside, and I follow her in. There are bunk chairs a little to the front that we can sit on.

“Please don’t touch anything in there,” Laz shouts as he goes to the driver side, and gets in. “You did hear me say those red fuckers almost took my head off, right?” Laz says looking at me as if I was stupid to be asking him such a question.

“They blew up your car?” I ask him incredulously.

“Yes, and I am pissed. I had some good stuff in that van.” Laz clips his seatbelt on, and starts the van. We roll out.

I look around the van, at the monitors and surveillance equipment mounted on the sides. It was some high tech geek’s dream.

“I’m going to call a few friends and see if they are interested, and then we can go wherever it is we’re going,” he says from the front.

“Yeah, tell them to come to my place. I need some clothes,” I say staring down at the pyjamas.

Laz laughs. “I wasn’t going to say anything but…” he cracked up laughing.

“Don’t even think about it. I am sitting next to your precious machines. You’ll never know what will happen if I get mad.” I threaten him.

“Don’t you dare!” Laz shouts screaming.

“Stop laughing at me,” I say louder than his screaming.

“Shut up!” Hanika screams louder. “You sound like a bunch of teenagers.”

“I am a teenager,” I deadpan hoping for a laugh. But she doesn’t laugh she stares at me her nostrils flaring. Her hand rises to the sword that was now slung over her shoulder.

 “Sorry,” I say raising my hands in supplication.

Laz laughs at me from the front.

“Nice to see there is someone who can control you,” he says still cackling.

I flip him off, and lean against the wall of the truck.

Maybe it was a bad idea, bringing him in.