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Chapter One
Mercury had seen everything. He was tired
of lawful life. Living by the law had killed his wife and his only child.
1,476 miles they had traveled, just to get work. And when they arrived,
all they found was misery in their own people and hate in the residents.
They had moved from job to job, barely getting enough money to survive.
Finally, the winter months had come, and jobs disappeared. He watched
as his wife was consumed by fever while he could do nothing. When she
had died, he found work again. But malnutrition had taken his only son's
strength. And when he caught a cold, his small ten-year-old body could
do nothing against it, and so Mercury's son died as well, leaving him
utterly alone.
The anger had devoured him, inflamed his body and soul,
and in desperation he had reached back into his past. A past he had
tried to forget; the past of his father, Garrett, a master thief. In
this time of need, his roving mind remembered the training he had received
in preparation for adopting his father's life. When his father had died,
he had decided otherwise. He had chosen to live his life by the law
that protected him. Well that decision had expired. The law no longer
protected him, and thus he was no longer bound to it.
The night before, he had managed to acquire a black shirt
and black pants. These he had worn, and stolen the first of his money.
He had, ironically, stolen the money from the very store he bought his
black cloak from the next morning. The man had been unsuspecting, but
Mercury was quite aware of the absurdity of the situation. He laughed
at it, afterwards.
He bought a piece of string and used his belt knife to
carve a bow. Shafts of wood with ends honed to perfection made his arrows.
He filled one of his pouches with pieces of cloth, dipped in highly
diluted nitroglycerin and imbued with an easily acquired chemical that
made the fire burn bright. These 'flash bombs,' as his father had called
them, had been invented by Garrett to make escapes when seen. They could
fool everything that had some sort of optic perception with their bright
light. All you did was threw them down and the nitroglycerin took effect,
and when the bright chemical was ignited, POW, it caused a bright flash
of light, temporarily blinding anything looking in that relative direction.
Armed with these weapons, Mercury set off for his first
true job. There was a rich doctor who had insulted him and refused to
help his dying wife. 200 dollars less wouldn't hurt the guy one bit,
and Mercury's life and soul need the money and especially the revenge.
"Hey, Merc!" cried a voice.
Mercury spun around, flash bomb in hand. He recognized
the figure of one of his old friends running towards him and let out
a sigh of relief, putting the flash bomb back in his pocket.
"Yeah, what's the rush, Tommy?" he asked.
"Look, man, the police is lookin' for ya. They say you
kilt somun."
"What? Oh man. I have to go sooner'n I thought, then,"
he answered, running through things he had done recently. They couldn't
know what had happened last night yet, could they? But they were looking
for him for murder. He hadn't killed anyone… His train of thought was
cut short.
"You were plannin' on leavin'?"
"Yeah. Don' worry 'bout it none, though. I have ta go
now. No way I'm agoin' ta stick aroun' what with them s'posed law men
out lookin' for me."
"All right, then, Merc. I do sincerely hope t'see ya 'gin
soon."
Mercury turned away and slowly walked back to his tent.
The police had no reason to be looking for him. He hadn't done anything
to attract their attention. But that was nothing to rest on. He packed
his things and left the tent, putting a sign out that said "fer Sal
- $0.00." Somebody would pick it up soon enough. He turned and started
walking away when he heard a hoarse voice speaking behind him.
"Where'd you think ye're goin'?"
"I'm a-leavin'," he replied, turning around.
"Oh no, you ain't, son. You the man we lookin' for, an'
you ain't goin' nowheres."
The man shifted his weight to his other leg, and Mercury
caught the glint of a gold star on his chest.
"Where're yer little po-lice friends?" he asked.
"Right here," replied another voice as three more men
came out from behind the first.
Quick as lightning, Mercury whipped out a flash bomb and
threw it to the ground. By the time it struck, Mercury had thrown his
cloak over his eyes and turned around. He heard a satisfactory cry as
the bomb took its effect on the police officers. Without giving it much
thought, he ran towards the doctor's house.
When he got there, he saw a tall gate and a wall around the house. He
looked at the wall, deciding whether it was safe to climb it, but saw
that it was too high. He pulled out the lock picks he had carved in
the woods and neared the iron gate. He inserted the triangle-toothed
one into the lock and tried it. Feeling resistance, he took out the
square-tooted lock pick. It turned easily, and the lock's tumblers gradually
fell into place. He finally heard the satisfying click that told him
the lock was no longer a problem.
He tried the handle and opened the door. Three meters
away, he saw a guard. The guard had been sleeping until the grating
of the door woke him up. He thought he saw something, but by the time
he looked again, Mercury had blended into the shadows.
"Hmph," the guard said. "Must have been rats."
Mercury quietly trod on the soft grass until he reached
another door. Suddenly, he heard a shout behind him.
"Hey! The gate's open!"
Mercury cursed himself for having forgotten the door.
Once again, he sank into the shadows of the wall. The guard passed by,
alerted and probing the shadows with searching eyes. Mercury held his
breath, but the guard passed by. Mercury let his breath out in a sigh
of relief, and carefully walked behind the guard, hugging the shadows.
The guard started to turn around, but it was too late. His head struggled
with the restrictive hands around it as Mercury knocked him out with
chloroform.
Mercury backed up until he found the door again. He had
found a patch of the shadows where he put the tied and gagged guard.
He picked the lock on the side door and stepped in. His soft leather
soles made no sound against the carpet as he neared the first door in
the dark hallway. The sound of a voice reached his ears, however, and
he threw himself between two supportive columns, making a loud clatter
against the tile. Mercury winced, and the guard yelled out.
"Hey, who made that noise?"
Mercury turned to stone. The guard came nearer, making
no attempt to quiet his footsteps. The guard had almost reached Mercury
when he went back to his patrol, muttering, "Gotta 'member to clean
ma ears when A get home. A'm a-gettin' too jumpy." Mercury thanked the
guard for being so stupid and quietly walked across the hallway to the
door. He picked the lock slowly, pausing every few moments to listen
for the guard. Finally, the door was no longer locked, and Mercury walked
in.
The room was shuttered, so that there was even less light
than in the dark night outside, but Mercury's eyes adapted quickly.
He saw a safe. A smile formed on his face as he crossed the room soundlessly.
He tested the safe door. "He's an idiot," Mercury muttered under his
breath as he opened the safe. The hinges, however, creaked a bit loud.
>From outside, the guard heard it and ran to the door. He unlocked the
door and walked in. Or rather, he tried. He had, in fact, locked the
door and thus managed to walk into it. Mercury stifled a laugh as the
rather ruffled guard stepped into the room. The guard turned on the
light, but Mercury had already hidden in a spot where the shadows remained.
The guard looked around the room. At one point, he looked straight at
Mercury, but Mercury's hood hid his face from light. Finally, the guard
gave up.
"Guess it was my imagination again," he said.
Then, he spotted the open safe.
"Hey, that wasn't like that before!" he exclaimed.
Without even glancing inside the safe, he took out his
pistol and started examining every inch of the room. Finally, he came
to the spot where Mercury was hiding. Just as the guard saw him, Mercury
stood, his six-foot-tall body dwarfing the guard. Before the guard could
react, a bright flash of light had blinded him. Mercury didn't give
him time to recover. The toxic fumes of chloroform sank the guard into
the bottomless abyss of unconsciousness before he regained his sight.
Mercury swore under his breath at having had to knock out two guards.
Meanwhile, he had tied up and hidden the guard.
Mercury looked inside the safe and saw just what he was looking for.
100 dollars were lying right there. The green bills were inside his
cloak pockets before the image had reached his brain. Slower, this time,
he went into the hallway. He strained his ears to hear a guard, but
all he heard was his own breath. He set out through the house again.
As he rounded the third corner, he saw a plaque that said
'Dining Room.' Aaah, he thought to himself, here's a place for some
goods. He walked into the room - and almost into a guard. He pulled
back quickly, but the guard hadn't noticed anything. How many guards
does this guy have! he thought. He saw the guard shift his weight from
leg to leg, restlessly. Mercury decided it was time to use one of his
arrows.
He receded into the shadows, once again invisible and
drew his bow. Aiming, he let the arrow fly. The wooden shaft struck
the tile thirty feet away from him, making a loud noise as the arrow
hit the ground, then skittered off into the distance.
The guard ran to the spot where the sound had come from.
Behind him, Mercury dashed through the door. Inside was a large, well-lit
room, and Mercury knew he wouldn't have time to explore it all. He quickly
grabbed a few rings and a stack of quarters, put them in his cloak,
and melted into the shadows under the table.
The guard walked back into the room, muttering about toys
- and dangerous ones at that - being left lying around .
After twenty minutes of waiting, Mercury's patience was
wearing thin. The guard had done nothing but change his post from being
in front of the closed door, looking in at the room, to opening the
door and looking towards the outside. Finally, however, he saw the guard
look at the clock, smile to himself, and walk out of the room. Mercury
listened to his steps recede, but he didn't hear the feet of his replacement.
Taking advantage of the gap, he got out from under the
table and took a better look around. The room was large and lavishly
decorated, and Mercury's disgust for the doctor grew as he looked around.
The walls were covered with large tapestries and paintings, while the
floor was highly polished hardwood. And, looking at the table, he realized
it was made of mahogany. Disgusting, he thought. Meanwhile, thought,
he had flitted around the room, finding candidates for loot.
His original objective complete, Mercury turned the light
in the room off. The switch was on the other side of the room from the
door, so that, when the replacement guard came, he would have to cross
the room in darkness, and Mercury would be assured time for escape.
Once again, he disappeared into the shadows of the table, just as heavy
footfalls became audible from the end of the hallway.
When the guard walked into the room, he went immediately
to turn the light on. "Lazy bum," he muttered to himself. Apparently,
this wasn't the first time this had occurred. Meanwhile, Mercury snuck
out of the room and into the shadows beyond. As light flooded the hallway
from the door, Mercury remained in his native element - the shadow.
Quickly, Mercury found his way out again, checking on
each of the two guards he had left behind. Both were still knocked out,
and he thought he'd made good time. As he set out towards the town,
he thought to himself, Guess I retained more of old Garrett's teachings
than I thought.
He had enough money to get fed for months, so he gave
some to those who still stuck to the law, even after all the hardships
they had faced. Might as well give them a break, he thought. I'll be
doing plenty more of this anyway.
The next day, he went to the Llama's Tongue pub. He'd
heard it was a gathering place for thieves and criminals. So, since
he was one of them now, he decided to give it a shot. As soon as he
walked in, the entire pub was quiet.
"Anything wrong?" he asked.
"Say, d'ya happen ta be that Mercury we ben a-hearin'
'bout?" asked one of the people.
"That depends what Mercury you ben a-hearin' 'bout, now
don't it?" he replied.
"Six foot tall. An' we heard you robbed Dr. Marman's place.
None of us 'ben able to get in there yet."
"Why should I tell ya if that was me or not? If it was,
you might just report it to the po-lice."
"Not in the Llama's Tongue we won't," said another. "We
got strict rules here. If'n a person starts braggin' 'bout illegal activities,
we don't tell on him or no one else involved."
"In that case, yes, it's me."
"Ya look very strange in that cloak 'n stuff. What they
for? Name's John, by the way," said a third person.
"Well, John, I'd gladly answer your question ef ever-one
would stop starin' at me."
Everyone looked away, embarrassed, and Mercury sat down
next to John. He ordered a beer and looked out of the windows at the
distant Hooverville. He shook his head, his eyes suddenly infused with
some of his original anger before he made his face devoid of expression
again and turned back to John.
"Now you asked 'bout my cloak 'n my clothes, right?" John
nodded. "A' right, then, I'll tell you what they for. I use them ta
conceal maself in the shadows. I use my cloak also ta protect ma eyes
from ma flash bombs."
"Now lookee here, you ain't Californian or Okie, much
as ye're tryin' to pretend."
"You're right," Mercury answered, dropping his fake accent.
"Born and raised in Maryland. But I've lived in Oklahoma ever since
my father died."
"So what's this flash bom' you goin' on 'bout?"
"My dad's secret recipe, you might call it. He was a master
thief."
"Bein' modes', A see. He wasn' a mas'r thief, too, he
was jus' a mas'r thief. An' what is this 'secret recipe?'"
"I can't tell you unless I'm about to kill you or you're
about to become my lifelong thieving partner," Mercury replied, amused
as he remembered the conditions for the revelation of the secret.
"Well, then, took the prop'sition righ' out of ma mouth."
"What proposition?" asked Mercury with a surprised face.
"To become thievin' par'ners."
"Well…" said Mercury, completely taken aback by the suddenness
of the idea. "Well… we might as well give it a shot. But first,
how do you rob a house?"
"Well, I get maself in there, and, ef a guard is unlucky
'nuf ta see me, I take 'im out. Otherwise, A get out wit' my loot an'
I feast!"
"In that case, here's the deal. First of all, there's
no way I'm telling you how to make a flash bomb until I figure out whether
I want to work with you. So, we're going to do one job together so I
can decide. K?"
"No prob wit that."
"Second, before that first job, we'll be working independently,
and no mention of my flash bombs will be made."
"Tha's fine wit me, too."
"And third, during the time before the assessment, you
will be studying with me on how to steal from a house without killing
a soul."
"An' that ain't. Wha' choo mean 'study?' I've made plenty
o' good jobs, thank ye."
"And alerted half a household every time you killed one
guy. What do you kill with?"
"Gun," John grunted, annoyed.
"Too noisy. And too heavy. I'm also going to teach you
how to use a dagger with what you will find to be great effectiveness."
"Hmph," was the only reply he received.
"Hmph nothin'. Take it or leave it."
"I'll take it. But A know A'll regret it."
"You just keep telling yourself that, and we won't get
anywhere."