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5 years ago
Two sides of the shield
“Let me see your hand.”
I was already engulfed by the darkness of the cave and couldn’t even see two centimeters in front of my face. Without any hesitation I did as she asked, showing no fear for the unknown. As her warm, silk soft hands held mine, I felt more relaxed almost blissful. This feeling caused my mind to wonder; only to be snapped back to reality by a feeling I know all too well both physically and emotionally. I was not sure what she used to cut my hand, but what I did know was that it was organic in nature; due to the lack of the icy metallic feeling I was accustom to. The feeling of her hot breath on my hand, as she let the blood slowly drip to her mouth startled me, and both my mind and heart began to race. I began to relax again when I felt her wrapping my hand with a piece of fabric; when she was finished and tied the fabric she held my hand up to her cheek; it was soft and warm like her hands and like her hands it wasn’t skin I felt or hair; it was familiar and yet unknown to me all at the same time.
“Your blood is neither good nor evil, yet both light and dark. You are blood bound to always do the honorable thing by any means, even very dark means. You are a darkness that fights for the light. There are those who will call you a hero, and others a monster and some will even call you a demon, but I will always call you my dark Templar.
“I’m honored, but do I call you?”
“Would a rose by any other name still small sweet; a throne by any other still draw blood? I’m simply your wolf in the shadows: My dark Templar.”
With a distant howl from deep within the cave she was gone.
My wolf in the shadows; now if only I know who you really were.
June 8th 0600 hours
Awoken but the sound of my cell phone ringing; trying to answer it in time when your still half asleep is easier said than done.
“What?”
“Hello, may I speak with a Mr. Franky Bell, Please?”
“Speaking”
“Mr. Bell I’m calling on behalf of the Asmythe Corporation. We are looking to heir you as security escort and guide for two of our personal.”
“Okay, where am I escorting them to?”
“You will be escorting them to a location that may be of importance to the corporation, and guard them while they assess the site for us.”
“Okay and when is the contract?”
“June 10th, for twenty hours and the corporation will pay you ten thousand now and an additional twenty thousand upon completion.”
“Okay you have yourself a tactical security operator. Just send the full details to my email.”
“Of course Mr. Bell, the Asmythe Corporation thanks you for your time and cooperation.”
With that she hung up; finally I get back to sleep. Due to the recent outbreak of crime and extreme violence, in Canada the federal government has seen fit to arm all security and correctional jobs and careers, to the point that they may as well be called soldiers. I work as a privately contracted tactical enforcer, which is the security equivalent to SWAT and ERT. I’m one of a few with this listing; thanks to this I can buy prohibited weapons, devices and even military grade hardware. This listing also allows me to take on contracts and jobs most others can’t; I also help fill in for some of the security companies in Nova Scotia From time to time.
June 8th 1200 Hrs.
After catching a few more hours of sleep I figured it was time to get my ass out of bed, and get ready for a day of training. After a quick lunch and a shower, I grabbed my gear and headed to the firing range; when I got there I saw a group of Securicore guards were already at the range; I felt like leaving right then and there, but in my book there is no excuse for not training when you have the time. Maybe they won’t notice me.
“Hey! Look guys we have our selves, a bacon bit.” so much for them not noticing me.
“If I’m a bacon bit, what does that make shit heads like you?”
“You: looking to start something? Bacon bit!”
“No, I don’t start shit; I finish it, and watch who you’re calling a bacon bit, bitch.”
“Then prove it on the range.”
“Yeah us four Vs. You on the pistol range.”
“All right you’re on! Ten rounds each, yellow ring is five points, Blue ten, white twenty and bull’s eye is a hundred. Oh and your scores will be add up to one total.”
“Fine by us.”
The final score was 920 to 95 in my favour. After that I moved on and started the training I had planned. It was 2045 hours by the time I got home. When I checked my Email I had two messages one from SSA Security Services Atlantic and the other from the Asmythe Corporation. The one from SSA was a request to fill in on one of their contracts as they are short-handed, a rather quite shift and an easy thousand for tomorrow. The message from Asmythe gave me the name and location of a café in Halifax, where I was to meet their personal at 0900 hours on the 10th. After I sent a reply to SSA I turned in for the night.
June 10th 0830Hrs
I was sitting out on the patio of the café playing with my knife which earned me some odd looks from the customers; not that I cared, but to put their minds at easy I Put my knife back in my jeep with the rest of my gear.
0945Hrs
I was getting kind of annoyed and almost left, when two men approached me. One appeared to be in his late 40’s early 50’s, about five foot two and heavy set with light grey hair around the sides of his head and none on top. He was clean shaven and wear thick metal frame glasses. The other man was about five foot eight with short brown hair and a full face beard; I pegged his age to be in the mid 20’s. The younger man had a slightly more athletic build then his friar tuck counterpart.
“Mr. Bell I assume?” the older man asked with an eye brow raise.
“Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups but yes. I’m Franky Bell and you can just call me Franky.”
“Nice to meet you Mr. Bell, I’m Dr. G, Longworth and this is Josepha Forster.”
“Hey, you can call me Joe.”
“Well you two sure took your time getting here; I was about to leave.”
“Our apologies for the wait; we had to try and pack the gear on the truck.” Joe said looking so proud of him-self.
“You two are taking what you can carry.”
“Why is that Mr. Bell?” Longworth asked looking so arrogant
“Because it’s your gear and I’m not carrying any of it for you, understood?”
The two men looked blankly at me then looked at each other and with a sight, agreed.
“Good now let’s not waste any more time, shall we?”
The three hour drive was uneventful and relaxing; only because I was in my jeep by myself. We reached a spot that was impassable for the vehicles so we loaded up what we could carry and started to hoof it. After what felt like hours wondering the forest lost I grabbed the map from Joe and lead the way to the cave. Or I would have shot myself. Checking my watch I realized that we had lost four and a half hours. The cave its self; looked like a hungry beast straight out of a horror movie, the stalactites and stalagmites appeared more like teeth of a giant mouth; the water dripping from the ceiling only added to this effect. Even though it was a hot day the air around the cave entrance was icy cold, like an ill omen there was something in the back of my mind telling me something was wrong here.
Even with what felt like rocks locked in my gut; I enter the cave first with Joe and Longworth trailing several meters behind me. Once inside the cave the rocks left my gut and I was dumb struck by the true beauty of the cave being unmasked before me. The way the light seemed to dance, play and jump from the many deposits of minerals, ores, gems and whatever else may be imbed in the walls and ceiling of the cave; left us all breathless and captivated. After a few minutes a feeling of being watched finally clicked and pulled my attention free of the cave’s seductive power.
“Joe, Doc! We need to move on.” With just those few words the two men were able to free themselves from the cave and catch up.
Even with the beauty of the cave both leading and following us I just couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Who, why and where are they watching from? As we prosed deeper in, the cave still trying to seduce us even under the artificial light of our flashlights and head lamps; it seemed the cave only enjoyed the chance to show off and play with the light not caring what the source of light is. We continued to walk until we came to a large dome like chamber that appeared to be about eighty meters in diameter; spread across the walls of the chamber were what looked like cave drawing and some looked fresher than others.
“Mr. Bell we need more light.”
“I’ll set up the flares, just give me a minute to get them set.”
As I’m setting the flares up I begin to notice piles of bones scattered around the chamber and opposite the way we entered there is a path leading deeper in.
“Okay gents. You have eight hours till the flares burn out so best get started.”
“Then just stand off to the side and stay out of the way.”
“Whatever you say doc”; and with that I chose to stand near the path that lead deeper in and just watch the egg heads work.
While watching the egg heads do their work I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched witch had me more alert and on edge; the sound of a rock falling came from behind me and earned an automatic almost robotic response from me. At that moment I clicked the rifle mounted torch on, wiped around dropping to one knee and leveling my weapon all in one fluid motion. The shadows only soaked up the light and reviled nothing. My mind must be playing trick on my.
A few hours later the egg heads were wrapping up in the failing light of the flares; the long shadows cast by the twilight of the flares seemed to reach out for us hungrily almost like the cave was trying to calm three victims. The shadows encroached upon us slowly until the only light left was from our headlamps and flash lights. Getting back to the vehicles was a lot quicker this time now that I started with the map. After guiding the eggheads to the hotel I headed home and the whole way I still had the omens feeling of being watched. Not long after getting back to my apartment the phone started to ring.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Bell?” I recognized the voice when she said my name.
“What does Asmythe want now?”
“We are calling to inform you that your payment has been sent and to hire you for future contracts of the same nature ahead of time.”
“Yeah just email me the details instead of calling for each one.”
“Of course Mr. Bell, Good day.” With that she hung up. They need a new administrator maybe one who is not so mono tone.
As I tried to sleep my dreams were haunted by images of the cave and the feeling of being watched and the many things that could have been watching me.
June 12th 0500Hrs
Lying in bed watching the eerie red glow of my alarm clock’s LCD realizing I slept away the entire day yesterday and trying to figure out what to do for the day. As I do my morning routine; I still feel like someone is watching me even in my own apartment. May be a walk will clear my head. As I head out the I put my H&K USP .45 Compact Tactical pistol in my shoulder holster and grab my K-bar combat knife, ID and badge just in case; the way the country has been going to hell in a hand basket you never know what may happen.
“Let me see your hand.”
I was already engulfed by the darkness of the cave and couldn’t even see two centimeters in front of my face. Without any hesitation I did as she asked, showing no fear for the unknown. As her warm, silk soft hands held mine, I felt more relaxed almost blissful. This feeling caused my mind to wonder; only to be snapped back to reality by a feeling I know all too well both physically and emotionally. I was not sure what she used to cut my hand, but what I did know was that it was organic in nature; due to the lack of the icy metallic feeling I was accustom to. The feeling of her hot breath on my hand, as she let the blood slowly drip to her mouth startled me, and both my mind and heart began to race. I began to relax again when I felt her wrapping my hand with a piece of fabric; when she was finished and tied the fabric she held my hand up to her cheek; it was soft and warm like her hands and like her hands it wasn’t skin I felt or hair; it was familiar and yet unknown to me all at the same time.
“Your blood is neither good nor evil, yet both light and dark. You are blood bound to always do the honorable thing by any means, even very dark means. You are a darkness that fights for the light. There are those who will call you a hero, and others a monster and some will even call you a demon, but I will always call you my dark Templar.
“I’m honored, but do I call you?”
“Would a rose by any other name still small sweet; a throne by any other still draw blood? I’m simply your wolf in the shadows: My dark Templar.”
With a distant howl from deep within the cave she was gone.
My wolf in the shadows; now if only I know who you really were.
June 8th 0600 hours
Awoken but the sound of my cell phone ringing; trying to answer it in time when your still half asleep is easier said than done.
“What?”
“Hello, may I speak with a Mr. Franky Bell, Please?”
“Speaking”
“Mr. Bell I’m calling on behalf of the Asmythe Corporation. We are looking to heir you as security escort and guide for two of our personal.”
“Okay, where am I escorting them to?”
“You will be escorting them to a location that may be of importance to the corporation, and guard them while they assess the site for us.”
“Okay and when is the contract?”
“June 10th, for twenty hours and the corporation will pay you ten thousand now and an additional twenty thousand upon completion.”
“Okay you have yourself a tactical security operator. Just send the full details to my email.”
“Of course Mr. Bell, the Asmythe Corporation thanks you for your time and cooperation.”
With that she hung up; finally I get back to sleep. Due to the recent outbreak of crime and extreme violence, in Canada the federal government has seen fit to arm all security and correctional jobs and careers, to the point that they may as well be called soldiers. I work as a privately contracted tactical enforcer, which is the security equivalent to SWAT and ERT. I’m one of a few with this listing; thanks to this I can buy prohibited weapons, devices and even military grade hardware. This listing also allows me to take on contracts and jobs most others can’t; I also help fill in for some of the security companies in Nova Scotia From time to time.
June 8th 1200 Hrs.
After catching a few more hours of sleep I figured it was time to get my ass out of bed, and get ready for a day of training. After a quick lunch and a shower, I grabbed my gear and headed to the firing range; when I got there I saw a group of Securicore guards were already at the range; I felt like leaving right then and there, but in my book there is no excuse for not training when you have the time. Maybe they won’t notice me.
“Hey! Look guys we have our selves, a bacon bit.” so much for them not noticing me.
“If I’m a bacon bit, what does that make shit heads like you?”
“You: looking to start something? Bacon bit!”
“No, I don’t start shit; I finish it, and watch who you’re calling a bacon bit, bitch.”
“Then prove it on the range.”
“Yeah us four Vs. You on the pistol range.”
“All right you’re on! Ten rounds each, yellow ring is five points, Blue ten, white twenty and bull’s eye is a hundred. Oh and your scores will be add up to one total.”
“Fine by us.”
The final score was 920 to 95 in my favour. After that I moved on and started the training I had planned. It was 2045 hours by the time I got home. When I checked my Email I had two messages one from SSA Security Services Atlantic and the other from the Asmythe Corporation. The one from SSA was a request to fill in on one of their contracts as they are short-handed, a rather quite shift and an easy thousand for tomorrow. The message from Asmythe gave me the name and location of a café in Halifax, where I was to meet their personal at 0900 hours on the 10th. After I sent a reply to SSA I turned in for the night.
June 10th 0830Hrs
I was sitting out on the patio of the café playing with my knife which earned me some odd looks from the customers; not that I cared, but to put their minds at easy I Put my knife back in my jeep with the rest of my gear.
0945Hrs
I was getting kind of annoyed and almost left, when two men approached me. One appeared to be in his late 40’s early 50’s, about five foot two and heavy set with light grey hair around the sides of his head and none on top. He was clean shaven and wear thick metal frame glasses. The other man was about five foot eight with short brown hair and a full face beard; I pegged his age to be in the mid 20’s. The younger man had a slightly more athletic build then his friar tuck counterpart.
“Mr. Bell I assume?” the older man asked with an eye brow raise.
“Assumption is the mother of all fuck ups but yes. I’m Franky Bell and you can just call me Franky.”
“Nice to meet you Mr. Bell, I’m Dr. G, Longworth and this is Josepha Forster.”
“Hey, you can call me Joe.”
“Well you two sure took your time getting here; I was about to leave.”
“Our apologies for the wait; we had to try and pack the gear on the truck.” Joe said looking so proud of him-self.
“You two are taking what you can carry.”
“Why is that Mr. Bell?” Longworth asked looking so arrogant
“Because it’s your gear and I’m not carrying any of it for you, understood?”
The two men looked blankly at me then looked at each other and with a sight, agreed.
“Good now let’s not waste any more time, shall we?”
The three hour drive was uneventful and relaxing; only because I was in my jeep by myself. We reached a spot that was impassable for the vehicles so we loaded up what we could carry and started to hoof it. After what felt like hours wondering the forest lost I grabbed the map from Joe and lead the way to the cave. Or I would have shot myself. Checking my watch I realized that we had lost four and a half hours. The cave its self; looked like a hungry beast straight out of a horror movie, the stalactites and stalagmites appeared more like teeth of a giant mouth; the water dripping from the ceiling only added to this effect. Even though it was a hot day the air around the cave entrance was icy cold, like an ill omen there was something in the back of my mind telling me something was wrong here.
Even with what felt like rocks locked in my gut; I enter the cave first with Joe and Longworth trailing several meters behind me. Once inside the cave the rocks left my gut and I was dumb struck by the true beauty of the cave being unmasked before me. The way the light seemed to dance, play and jump from the many deposits of minerals, ores, gems and whatever else may be imbed in the walls and ceiling of the cave; left us all breathless and captivated. After a few minutes a feeling of being watched finally clicked and pulled my attention free of the cave’s seductive power.
“Joe, Doc! We need to move on.” With just those few words the two men were able to free themselves from the cave and catch up.
Even with the beauty of the cave both leading and following us I just couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched. Who, why and where are they watching from? As we prosed deeper in, the cave still trying to seduce us even under the artificial light of our flashlights and head lamps; it seemed the cave only enjoyed the chance to show off and play with the light not caring what the source of light is. We continued to walk until we came to a large dome like chamber that appeared to be about eighty meters in diameter; spread across the walls of the chamber were what looked like cave drawing and some looked fresher than others.
“Mr. Bell we need more light.”
“I’ll set up the flares, just give me a minute to get them set.”
As I’m setting the flares up I begin to notice piles of bones scattered around the chamber and opposite the way we entered there is a path leading deeper in.
“Okay gents. You have eight hours till the flares burn out so best get started.”
“Then just stand off to the side and stay out of the way.”
“Whatever you say doc”; and with that I chose to stand near the path that lead deeper in and just watch the egg heads work.
While watching the egg heads do their work I still couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched witch had me more alert and on edge; the sound of a rock falling came from behind me and earned an automatic almost robotic response from me. At that moment I clicked the rifle mounted torch on, wiped around dropping to one knee and leveling my weapon all in one fluid motion. The shadows only soaked up the light and reviled nothing. My mind must be playing trick on my.
A few hours later the egg heads were wrapping up in the failing light of the flares; the long shadows cast by the twilight of the flares seemed to reach out for us hungrily almost like the cave was trying to calm three victims. The shadows encroached upon us slowly until the only light left was from our headlamps and flash lights. Getting back to the vehicles was a lot quicker this time now that I started with the map. After guiding the eggheads to the hotel I headed home and the whole way I still had the omens feeling of being watched. Not long after getting back to my apartment the phone started to ring.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Bell?” I recognized the voice when she said my name.
“What does Asmythe want now?”
“We are calling to inform you that your payment has been sent and to hire you for future contracts of the same nature ahead of time.”
“Yeah just email me the details instead of calling for each one.”
“Of course Mr. Bell, Good day.” With that she hung up. They need a new administrator maybe one who is not so mono tone.
As I tried to sleep my dreams were haunted by images of the cave and the feeling of being watched and the many things that could have been watching me.
June 12th 0500Hrs
Lying in bed watching the eerie red glow of my alarm clock’s LCD realizing I slept away the entire day yesterday and trying to figure out what to do for the day. As I do my morning routine; I still feel like someone is watching me even in my own apartment. May be a walk will clear my head. As I head out the I put my H&K USP .45 Compact Tactical pistol in my shoulder holster and grab my K-bar combat knife, ID and badge just in case; the way the country has been going to hell in a hand basket you never know what may happen.
