Sam Sisavath - The Isles of Elysium

“They were friends, you know,” Jordan had told him. “They were friends for a long time after everything happened. They were in the camp together, then one day they were running things…”

“He loved this,” Steve said, then smirked. “I don’t know why. It’s ugly as fuck. What do you think?”

“I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing it,” Keo said.

“Yeah, me too.” Steve pocketed the ring. “But I’ll keep it anyway. In memory of him.” Then he fixed Keo with a suspicious look. “How did you do it? Take out Tobias?”

“Does it matter?”

“I’d like to know.”

“I shot him in the back of the head.”

“How did you know about the ring?”

“I didn’t, but I figured it was better than dragging his entire corpse back here. The ring was the most obvious personal possession he had on him.”

He expected more of an interrogation, but Steve just nodded. “Come on, I think I still have a bottle of spirits stashed somewhere in my office.” He turned to go, but then suddenly stopped and looked back at Keo. “Oh, just for your safety and mine, give Jack your weapons.”

“And here I thought I’d earned some trust,” Keo said.

Steve smiled. “You have. But you can never be too careful these days.”

Keo unslung the submachine gun and unclasped his gun belt and handed them over to Jack. “You’re looking spry.”

“Feeling spry,” Jack grinned back. “Won’t be running around for a few more weeks, though. But hey, things will be calming down with Tobias out of the way. Looks like they turned tail and ran from what our scouts saw back at the YMCA building.”

“I wouldn’t know. I was out of there by first light.”

He followed Steve off the bridge, but not before sneaking a look back at the woods on the other side. Jordan was there, somewhere, among all the green and brown. Of course he couldn’t see her, but he could feel her watching him back.

He turned to Steve. “So where’s Gillian?”

“You in a hurry?” Steve asked.

“I haven’t seen her in half a year, so yeah, I’m in a little bit of a hurry. I want to make sure she’s fine.”

“She’s fine. I saw her this morning.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why were you seeing her this morning?”

Steve shrugged. “It’s a small town, Keo. Don’t read too much into it.”

Keo didn’t believe him, but he said, “How did she look?”

“Definitely worth killing a guy for.” He walked on for a moment, before adding, “So, six months without any action?”

“I’ve seen plenty of action.”

“But no sexy times.”

Keo didn’t confirm or deny. He said instead, “When do I get to see her?”

“After you and I have a little chat.”

“About what?”

“Where we go from here,” Steve said, “and whether you’re more useful to me dead or alive.”

Keo sneaked another look at the woods on the other side of the river, wondering if it was too late to signal Jordan to take the shot.

*

“He was a star football player, but you probably already guessed that,” Steve said.

He was pouring from the same bottle of Jack Daniels from yesterday, though there was, at most, just three to four more pours left. He pushed the shot glass across the table and Keo took it, then cringed at the burn as the whiskey went down.

“I think our schools might have even played each other’s once or twice, but I can’t remember,” Steve continued. “Way before your time, obviously. What are you, late twenties?”

“Sounds about right,” Keo said.

“You’re pretty impressive for a guy that young.”

“I didn’t have a lot of choices.”

“Hard life?”

“Hard enough.”

“I can respect that. Jack and I were the product of divorced parents; we were raised mostly apart when we were younger. Barely saw each other until our parents kicked off. I can understand having to do what you have to in order to get by. That’s what we’re doing here.”

They were back in Steve’s office in Marina 1. Keo hadn’t been certain he was going to make it off the bridge alive, but that turned out to be his paranoia getting the best of him. Steve seemed happy to keep him breathing, at least for the next few minutes.

“He was good,” Steve was saying. It took Keo a moment to figure out that he was still talking about Tobias. “Got himself a scholarship to UT in Austin. Didn’t play much there, though. As fast and big and skilled as you are, there’s always one or five other guys faster, bigger, and more skilled.”

Steve nursed his drink, staring at the glass as if he expected to find some kind of revelation swimming among the golden honey liquid.

“They were friends, you know,” Jordan had said.

And yet, he still sent me out there to kill his friend.

“What happened between the two of you?” Keo asked.

He couldn’t care less about the answer, but it was obvious Steve wanted him to ask. Keo didn’t give a shit, but he knew an opening when he saw one, and anything that kept him alive long enough to see Gillian and figure a way out of here was worth enduring the regretful ruminations of a man like Steve.

“We just couldn’t agree on the direction to take Wilmont,” Steve said. “That’s the old name, before we changed it to T18.”

“Who came up with that?”

“No idea. It’s just temporary, anyway. They say in another year or two, maybe we’ll get a real name.”

“Who is ‘they’?”

Steve grinned at him over the brim of his glass. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. You’ve only seen the black-eyed ones, right?”

“There are others?” Keo asked, even though he already knew the answer.

“Oh yeah,” Steve said. “They can do things. Crazy things.” He put the glass down with half of the whiskey still inside. “It’s hard to explain. One of those things you have to see for yourself in order to believe.”

“I’ve seen a lot in my time. I couldn’t explain most of it, either.”

“I bet you have. Seen a lot, I mean.” Steve took out Tobias’s ring and spun it on the desktop like a top. For something so gaudy, it was well-balanced and kept turning for a long time. “The kind of man who accepts a contract killing, then comes back after everything that’s happened, is a dangerous one.”

“Or useful.”

“Is that why you killed one of my guys in the woods? To make yourself more useful? That’s three you’ve forced me to replace now.”

“They all had weapons when I took them out. They had just as good of a chance to put me down as I did them. The way I figured it, I was faster and shot straighter. You should thank me for having enough self control not to plug the kid, too, or else you’d be replacing four instead of just three.”

Steve chuckled. “I should be thankful, huh?”

“Absolutely.”

“You’re probably right. Besides, I got ten volunteers for every soldier I lose, anyway.”

“Everyone loves a winning team.”

“Very true.” He paused, eyeing Keo over the desk. “I know exactly why everyone is here, why they can’t volunteer fast enough when we ask for names. But what I’m curious about is you. What makes you tick?”

Keo leaned back, then met and held Steve’s hard gaze. “You’re overthinking it. I don’t give two shits about you or this town of yours. I’m a survivor. I’ve always been. I got through all this by telling myself there was something on the other side, waiting for me.”

“And what would that be?”

“Gillian.”

“What if she wants to stay?”

“Then we’ll stay.”

“Just like that?”

“I’m not fussy. And like I said, I’ve been out there for a year and it’s nothing to write home about.” He let a ghost of a smile cross his lips. “You look like you have a good thing going on here. My guess is, while you insist everyone do their duty with the blood stuff at night, you and your soldiers exempt yourselves. Am I right?”