The Girl With the Owl on Her Shoulder

The Savage, Part One

Whenever the rich folks from the East need to move something into the occupied West, they find us. Not us specifically, but at least a group with similar expertise. Myself, Ford, and Lynne. The rich folk like to call us bodyguards, but that has a mildly crass connotation. I much prefer we go by a better name, but one doesn't exist. They call us bodyguards. I'd say professionals.

I was relieved to find out we'd be getting another job. The demand for our services has been dwindling since the savages acquired a more permanent hold on the West. The client sent me directions to his place of residence. I took the van up there with Ford and Lynne. We decided to leave the combat armour in the trunk. Gated communities don't like it when their guests are armed. This one place, Infinity Meadows, was real swanky. Good looking families, well-trimmed lawns. The sorts of houses I'd want to live in.

The man we were meeting was named Mitchell Farkas. Farkas was a grotesquely thin man, tall and wiry with hair like a candle's wick. He happened to be very friendly.

"You're the people I sent for?" he asked when I appeared at his door.

I nodded.

"Excellent, excellent. Please, come in."

I hadn't been welcomed into a house this nice in a while. Usually, people who hire us don't want to meet on home turf. Farkas was naive and well-meaning. I was quite grateful for his hospitality; it was a nicer place than our current residence in a bombed-out shack near Burnaby.

"I must seem quite unprofessional in my dealings," Farkas remarked as we took our seats in his living room.

"Nonsense," I said, eager to make this sale, "It's a welcome change from tense meetings in parking lots."

We all laughed, Ford especially. He laughed like he had something to prove.

"Good to hear," Farkas chuckled, "Then this won't be very hard for you to swallow: I need you to help me get someone out of the West."

Lynne gasped. Such a job was a rarity nowadays, given that anyone who would have wanted to hoof it east either already did or had their head on a pike somewhere along the border. I liked a challenge.

"That shouldn't be too hard," I replied, "What do you know of this person's whereabouts?"

This'll be easy money.

"I actually have the long-lats for her house written down," Farkas said. He reached into his breast pocket and produced a small scrap with a few numbers written down. The GPS in the van would have no problem with this.

"Are you sure that this person will still be at this address? The landscape has been scoured by savages. Your target may have been forced to escape," I continued.

"I thought of that possibility as well. I don't think it's exceptionally likely, though. See, she's my great aunt. Robin. She's pretty old to be running from savages," Farkas said.

Ford, Lynne, and I exchanged worried glances.

Farkas continued. "She lives in a walled compound on the island. Savages only invaded her area less than a month ago. It's very possible that they haven't broken through her defences. I know that they will eventually, though. I want her out of occupied territory before its too late."

"Very well, I'll have supplies rounded up and my team will leave before sundown," I replied, the deal made.

"Actually, I'll be coming with you," Farkas announced as I stood to leave, grabbing my wrist and sitting me back down.

"That's not going to work for us," Ford said in his most gravelly of menacing voices.

"Well, it'll have to. That's the only way she'll go. If I'm not there, you'll be wasting your time."

"I can agree to it, as long as we get the money up front," Lynne said, businesslike as always, "I'll be quite frank: there's a very large possibility that you'll die en route. I'd like to get paid before that happens."

"Of course, of course. I was prepared for that anyway," Farkas replied politely. He had the tone of someone who was anticipating the entire conversation before it happened.

There wasn't much more to our stay in Infinity Meadows after that. Farkas was ready to leave right away. I had Lynne show him how to put on the combat armour. I said that we'd head for the border right after we'd stopped at the bank.