Beats Entropy

(Continued from PART 1, Continued in PART 3)

Saul and I were more failed antagonists than friends. Whenever we’d crossed purposes in the past we’d both ended up poorer and indisposed, so decided to call it a wash and exist in each others grey graces from there on.

Everybody liked Saul. He was the sort of reliable coward that always operated to his best advantage; never took things personal. If his knife was in your back you knew why, and likely deserved it. Faint praise in most worlds: base enough flattery in ours to blush and cut your throat over. I’d come to him since he knew everyone and owed me a couple favors; to pull this job I’d need at least that amount of both, and the outcome was still in doubt.

Saul hadn’t blinked or moved in a disconcerting amount of time. I’d always suspected he’d fail to fog a mirror when deep in thought; my last question had forced a comatose pause long enough I’d begun eyeing his rings and more transportable valuables. A shuddering tick resurrected his features.

“Are you drunk? No, you’re clearly drunk….that not enough to explain this.”

I hate sarcasm. I was drunk, though.

“ You’re getting bogged down by details, Saul. A hit is a hit; it’s just a matter of ironing out the logistics.”

That was goddamn lie and I knew it.

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“That’s goddamn lie and you know it.”
Saul cooled, then brooded. I could tell the impossibility of the venture had intrigued him.
“Nobody has ever killed one.

” Yeah, so. No body has ever crammed a Rabbit up my ass either…doesn’t mean it can’t be done .We just need a good crew”
That was the crux of why I needed Saul (the crew part, not shoving a Rabbit up my ass). I’d been gone a long time, and while cred like mine didn’t fade, I lacked the lay of land sufficent to track down the right people in time.

Saul twisted his thinking ring; I could see the embers of a plan begin to flare in the back of his brain. Prick would never come right out and say it though.
“Who you looking to get?”

I started with the worst and worked my way down.
“Benny the axe?”

Saul shook his head.
“Broke his neck”

Not a big surprise.
“Dav the Hog?”

Another shake.
“Slaughtered.”

“Quick Jimmy?”

“Run down by the law”

“Ugly Jak?”

“Married with three kids.”

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I was about ready to extend that smug grin round the back of his head.
“You taking the piss out of me now, Saul?”

*
Saul took a good look at my eyes and that smug grin died like a kitten on a clothesline. I’d been gone a long time…but some things you remember. His slick merchant hands waved off the offence.
“You asked, I answered. What can I say? You’ve been in the game a long time Wryle. Just about everyone you came up with is either dead, maimed, or had the good sense to let a women lead him by his balls into the straight life. These days anyone with brains enough to succeeded at it isn’t stupid enough try it, and anyone stupid enough to try it doesn’t live long enough to get any good.”

There is an overstated grandeur to being the last of something. Whatever thing it was is gone; what’s left is this broken piece lodged in the world, trying figure out how to be something that maybe never existed…and why they missed the easy out. I really should’ve sobered up before talking to Saul…cheap booze makes me maudlin.
—————————————————————————————————
“The best you are going find around here are sketchy guardsmen looking for a quick payoff, and bored farm kids looking for a way out. You might as well lay them out here and save yourself carrying the corpses back later.”
Saul wound down into one of his glacial pauses. You could see the enthusiasm bleed out with every turgid beat of his heart; he was taking the long walk home from wherever I’d taken him a moment before. My least harmful acquaintance withered into a tired, old, stranger.
“I don’t think I can help you here.”

For old times sake I hope I kept the contempt off my face better than he kept the pity off his.
“No worries, Saul. I can pull this one solo.”

He had the decency not to call me on the lie. I had the decency to not look him in the eyes on the way out. I went to find the Ogre.

Continued in Part the Third