Sam Sisavath - The Isles of Elysium

Keo looked out the window as two armed men in black uniforms walked the riverbanks behind Steve. “You need that many guns to keep on keeping on, Steve?”

“Can’t be helped. We have a bit of a problem, you see.” Steve leaned slightly across the table. “You wanna hear about it?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Steve shrugged.

“Gee, Steve, what kind of problem do you have?” Keo asked, with all the enthusiasm of a man being forced to recite a line at gunpoint.

Steve smiled. “I like you.”

“I don’t blame you. I’m a likable guy.”

“Was that before or after this?” he asked, tracing the left side of his face with his finger.

“Scars give a man personality. You should try it.”

“I’ll stick to looking handsome.” He leaned back in his chair. “So, this problem of mine. You see, everyone here’s gotten with the program, but not everyone out there has. I still have people running around causing trouble.”

“Like me?”

“Nah, you’re just a straggler.”

“And that’s a good thing?”

“I put people who haven’t gotten with the reality of our situation into two categories: The ones that don’t know any better, and the ones that are determined to make things miserable for everyone else. You belong in the former category.”

“Yay for me.”

“Then, of course, there are the ones in the latter category. They’re the reasons my men have to guard the marina and the bridge and the surrounding areas every second of daylight. Obviously we don’t have to worry about the nights.”

“Obviously.”

Steve offered to pour him another glass, but Keo turned it down again. “So that’s my dilemma,” Steve said, pouring himself a third shot. “I have people I need to take care of-the ones here, who depend on me and my men-but there are troublemakers out there making it difficult. That’s where you come in.”

“I didn’t know this was a job interview.”

“It is. Consider it your last job interview.”

“How so?”

“If you don’t pass, I shoot you.”

Keo smirked. “I guess I better pass, then.”

“I would think so.”

“So what’s the job?”

“Jack told me what you did on that island. That was impressive.”

“I had help.”

“The kid?”

“Yeah.”

“The kid shot Jack from the ridge when no one knew he was up there. I saw that scope on his rifle. A half-blind coal miner could have made that shot. And he actually missed. He was aiming for Jack’s chest. You, on the other hand, went at two of my guys straight on with nothing but that German gun. That takes a lot of guts. And skill.”

“You don’t care that I killed two of yours?”

“I care, but I can respect that you did what you had to do. Besides, plenty more where they came from.”

“Classes within classes, right?”

Steve nodded while eyeing Keo over the rim of his glass. “That’s right. And right now, I need a man like you, Keo.”

“To do what?”

“To do what you do.”

“You’ll have to be a little more specific. I do a lot of things. Some of them even involve whipped cream.”

“Unfortunately I’m all out of whipped cream, but I do have Gillian.”

Keo smiled back, doing his very best not to betray his thoughts. He remembered waking up on Santa Marie Island to find Gene and Steve talking. They had been for some time, too. Now he knew what the topic of conversation had been.

“You don’t look surprised,” Steve said. “I guess you saw us talking this morning. Don’t blame him; he’s just a kid. What is he, seventeen?”

“I thought he was sixteen.”

“Either/or. Doesn’t matter, I guess. These days, you have to grow up fast or you don’t grow up at all.”

Steve finished his third glass and put it down softly. The man’s hand, Keo saw, was steady. Too steady, even after three shots.

“Back to you and Gillian,” Steve said.

“What about me and Gillian?”

“That was her, wasn’t it? On the riverbanks while we were coming up? Come on, don’t deny it. The way you stood up and stared.” He put a hand to his chest and grinned. “It was so romantic.”

Keo remained as stone-faced as possible but internally cursed himself for giving it away on the boat. He should have known someone like Steve would have noticed.

He had to be careful around Steve. Very, very careful.

“The kid described her to me, and it was a no-brainer to put two and two together,” Steve continued. “I still remember the day she showed up. Hard to forget someone like that. Tall, black hair, and green eyes? Not a lot of those around these days. We caught her on a boat just off Galveston.”

“Just her?”

“There were others, but to hear the boys tell it, they tried to fight back and, well, bad things happen when you fight back. She survived, though, and we brought her here. That was…hmm…” He was either really thinking about it or was doing a good job of selling it. “Five months ago? Maybe six? Processing has all the information, if you’re curious.”

“Maybe I can ask her myself.”

“Maybe.” The man was watching him closely, reading every flicker of emotion on his face. “She’s gorgeous. I can see why you spent all this time trying to find her. I would, too.”

Keo leaned forward and pushed his glass back toward Steve, who smiled and refilled it.

“So what’s the job?” Keo asked.

“Right to the point? Fine. I need you to do something for me. Do this one thing, and you can either stay here with Gillian or take her and run off to…wherever. I personally don’t think there’s anything better out there, but hey, it’s still a free country.”

“Is it?”

Steve gave him a noncommittal shrug. Keo picked up the refilled shot glass and sipped the whiskey. It went down easier the second time.

“What’s the job?” he asked again.

“I need you to kill someone for me,” Steve said.

Keo smiled.

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Even at the end of the world, there were still people who wanted him to take away other people’s lives for their own purposes. Except this time Gillian was the payment.

Hell, he’d done worse for less.

“Who’s the target?” Keo asked.

*

“What do you need?” Steve asked.

“My guns,” Keo said.

“And?”

“That’s it.”

“That’s it?”

“I’m a very simple guy. Have gun, will assassinate.”

Steve chuckled. “So I was right about you. You were born for this. Even before the world went to shit.”

“Some people can play the piano, I can do this. So who’s the target?”

“His name’s Tobias. He’s the reason I have men on the bridge and at the marina, and sentries all around town. He’s a real pain in my ass.”

“He’s alone?”

“No. He has some men with him.”

“How many is ‘some’?”

“Maybe as few as a couple, and maybe as many as a dozen.”

“A dozen is manageable.”

“Is that right?”

“I’ve gone up against worse odds.”

“Well, shit, you really are a bad man, aren’t you?” Steve laughed. “Glad you’re on my side.”

For now, asshole.

“One thing,” Keo said.

“What’s that?”

“I want to see Gillian first.”

Steve shook his head. “Can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“You may have agreed to the job, but you haven’t earned my trust yet, Keo. You’re not going anywhere past this marina until I know I can absolutely trust you not to screw me over.”

“So tie me at the hip to Donovan.”

“You’ll probably kill Donovan if he ever got that close to you.”

Keo smiled. He had to admit, Steve had a good point. Given how many times Donovan had unnecessarily prodded him with the barrel of his rifle, Keo would have liked nothing more than to get him just a little bit closer and return the favor.