Wind in the Hands (2 page)

Since early morning the Soldier had taken his position and was sure that he would see unwelcome ‘guests’ soon. He had been in the ambush for three hours when he suddenly felt that an object was nearing. He blinked, making his tense eyes comfortable, and closed his eyelids for several seconds. His finger smoothly touched the trigger. Less than ten minutes later, a traveler appeared from behind the hill. He did not have a gun or a bag but was wearing a tight sleeveless T-shirt. “Nothing on him,” the Soldier thought. “But he is neither a farmer, nor a worker. He has a fighter gait: he is looking around and peering. No doubt, he is a warrior but I cannot shoot, he is not the main aim. I need to wait not to frighten off others. Still, they will show up soon, nearly close, and the first one here is a dummy, their scout, a straw. A cheap trick.”

Much time elapsed but ‘guests’ did not appear. Strange, could there be mistaken? He doubted if his decision was correct: maybe he should have liquidated the terrorist. The Soldier lived by simple principles as any other warrior would: if I did not destroy my enemy, they would destroy me, my dear ones, children, women, and innocent people. He never said ‘killed’. ‘Liquidated’, ‘destroyed’, sometimes ‘wiped off’; these words seemed to confirm the need of physical extermination of enemies.

The value in a war is not only cunning or valor. It is also ruthlessness to your enemy. You differentiate between your people and others, friends and enemies. People who do not know each other join their efforts and are willing to sacrifice themselves to save their comrades whom in the peacetime they would hardly lend money to. The Soldier thought that the war revealed the best qualities in humans, meaning self-sacrifice, which conflicted with the strongest instinct of survival. Still, we should not forget the pressure of society, which sometimes pushes people to sacrifice their life to benefit humankind. Others spew their accumulated aggression and hatred. Sadistic inclinations and cruelty, hidden deep down, are easily vented in a battle. Some people break in extreme situations, and others grow stronger.

The Soldier could tell a real danger from the assumed one. His feelings never failed him, although he had contributed much effort and had bitter experience when he was trying to tell that difference. Despite the nature of his work, he believed in God in his own way. Before each business trip or after a battle, he visited the sanctuary, listened to religious singing, and always donated to church. That helped the Soldier to find an inner balance for at least a short time. Unlike his colleagues he did not get drunk, did not take drugs, trying to relieve stress. But still he felt that burden deep down in his soul which even grew heavier. And yesterday, while in church, he promised to quit his job, retire, and move somewhere to live in the quiet.

A mobile phone vibrated. The Soldier took it out from the coat sleeve fast and read an encoded message saying “Leave immediately. Cleaning pending.” The area will be searched and cleaned. The specified area will be cordoned off and searched for all suspicious persons. “Thank you for warning”, but it was not dark yet, and it was hard to move unnoticed. You could encounter rebels or, still worse, fire of the cleaners, shooting from all directions at all who look suspicious or just didn’t like.

A cleaning operation implies the use of the so-called ‘fifty’ device which scans the area and responds to living objects. Camouflage is of no avail in this case. If cleaners see him holding a gun, they will never investigate and just start fire without warning. Nobody will risk and act slowly: an armed person is a danger. It is a reflex with an index finger, bending and unbending on the trigger.

Cleaners are contract soldiers who carry out the dirtiest work. Battle is their elements where they can slop their aggression and instead of being punished, receive gratitude. Usually they cover their face with a scarf or a mask not to be seen. There were many complaints against cleaners but legal proceedings were never started as it was hard to find witnesses to testify against their comrades or ‘masks’. A legal action was taken only when the suffering party presented a video or in case of a favorable public opinion.

The Soldier was against cleaning operations as they resulted in the death of innocent people. Thus, cleaners who took a drill for a gun in the dark killed a young electrician, a father of three kids. After he had learnt about that, the Soldier challenged the reason of war, which entailed suffering of the civilian population. Can kind deeds be evil, although unintentionally or by mistake? Why are professional soldiers, who would never kill an electrician, unmistakably see fighters, and destroy them, mobilized for liquidation so rarely? The Soldier was the master of surgical strikes and was confident that his work did not require an excuse as he was wiping killers off the Earth. When he saw innocent victims of fighters, beautiful women and strong men torn to pieces by explosions, or slaughtered babies, he stopped to doubt and was ready to shoot all those who were connected with rebels: militants with guns and explosives or ideologists inciting killing. The Soldier considered himself a hunter for wolves that were ruthless to sheep…

Chapter 3. Meeting

The Soldier hid his shoulder arm. It was much safer to go unarmed in that case not to raise any suspicion. He took out earlier prepared clothes from his bag, changed and then looked like a pilgrim on a tour around famous sights. Warriors lower their arms when they see such weirdoes, joke and insult them but never shoot.

Slowly and carefully, and slightly clumsily the Soldier was going down the steep mountain. Having walked about three hundred steps along the path towards the nearest settlement, he saw a man approaching him. He carefully looked around trying to understand where to run in case of shooting but did not feel danger. He inhaled and exhaled slowly and listened to his feelings again: “Definitely no danger. Who dares walk here? People warned of a cleaning operation do not leave their settlement.”

When they met, the travelers glanced at each other. The Soldier seemed to feel that the yearning, which was with him all the time, was evaporating without any church singing. He wanted to speak with the stranger who spoke first.

“Be in peace. I am glad I’ve found you. It was not easy.”

He was wearing simple comfortable clothes, had a beard and long hair but did not look like a rebel and spoke without any perceptible accent typical to local residents.

“Who are you?” the Soldier asked the man who was penetrating him with his kind and slightly ironical eyes.

“I am your friend.”

The Soldier felt the traveler’s geniality.

Have you seen a couple of people with bags or sacks nearby?

“Yes, I have seen them and spoken with them and warned them of a deadly peril.”

“Do you know them?” the Soldier grew suspicious.

“No more than you,” a Stranger answered calmly.

“Then why have you helped them?” the Soldier ground his teeth. “They are killers, enemies. How do you know?” he checked himself. “Who are you?”

“They have not killed anyone, but you killed a lot.”

“They are killers,” the Soldier reiterated stubbornly, but suddenly under the changed glance of his companion, he felt limp and slightly dizzy.

“You don’t know how killers are made. You can see only a small fragment of a large mosaic and not the big picture. You are digging in earth looking for worms for your hook, but not catching large fish with a net. You have a talent but you are wasting it.”

“What sort of a talent do I have,” the Soldier was staring at this latter-day preacher open-eyed.

“Your intuition, good grasp of the situation and all that without any background. But your capabilities are within the narrow world of first person shooters, and that’s why you are in worm digging,” the companion looked away.

“These shooters rescued many lives,” the Soldier was appearing calm but his voice betrayed poorly concealed rage.

“While you rescued some people, you brought death to others. This is not the best solution.”

“I have rescued my people by destroying the enemy who has been dreaming of killing us all,” the Soldier believed he was saying the universal truth.

“There are no my or other races, peoples and tribes in the world of peace and justice.”

“What country do you mean? I do not care about other customs. I haven’t heard about this country in the news. Where is it?”

“There is no such country on the Earth, but its laws have reached us. If you want to get there, you will have to live here following its rules.”

“I see. You mean life after death. Do you seriously believe that? Who cares for us there…”

“Yes, I do. Let me tell you a funny story:

Two twin would-be babies are talking inside a pregnant woman. One of them is a believer, while the other is a non-believer. The non-believer baby asks,

‘Do you believe in life after birth?’

‘Yes, I do. We are here to get ready to live after birth,’ answers the believer baby.

‘But it is impossible! There is no life after birth! Can you imagine that other life?’

‘I don’t know the details, but I believe that we will have more light and we will be able to walk and eat with our own mouths.’

‘That’s absolute crap! You cannot walk on your legs or eat with your mouth! That’s so absurd! We have an umbilical cord, which feeds us. Listen to me, life after birth cannot exist because our life is our umbilical cord and we will die without it.’

‘I am sure it is possible. Just everything will be slightly different.’

‘But no one has returned! Our life just ends with birth. And generally life is enormous suffering in the dark.’

‘Oh, no! I am not sure what this life is going to be but we will see our mother in any case and she will take of us.’

‘You are speaking about mother? Do you believe in mother? And where is she then?’

‘She is all around us; we are inside her and can move and live owing to her. We cannot exist without her.’

‘That’s nonsense! I have never seen the mother and it means that she just doesn’t exist.’

‘But you have the inner knowledge of the mother. You know this word, can imagine her, although vaguely. Just remember, when everything is quiet all around, you can hear her singing and feel how she is stroking our world. I believe that our real life will just start after birth’.”

The Soldier grinned and shook his head.

“Not bad. But I am not a follower of the death religion. To reach your country, I will have to die first, that is what the die-hard rebels’ philosophy is about. But what do you want from me? I will never believe you have come to preach about eternal life to a lost sheep.”

“In the sheep’s skin,” corrected the companion, nodding at his short-sleeved T-shirt, and kept silent for some time staring in his eyes, “I need your help. I am not a follower of the death religion. We are going to either have this country here on the Earth, or have nothing.”

The Soldier endured his stare but felt extremely weak in his legs.

“Are you a prophet?” he asked quietly.

“No, I am not a prophet. They call me ‘the Stranger’. In order to understand me, you will have to get rid of any false perceptions,” the Stranger explained as softly as he could. “Tell me, who is more dangerous: an assassin’s paymaster or a killer?”

“The person who organizes assassination: an intermediary between the customer and the contractor. He appears to be innocent, sleeps calmly, and risks nothing,” the Soldier grinned.

“You know best, but if one kills the assassin’s paymaster you will have no job for killer and facilitator,” the Stranger looked at him inquiringly.

“I quite agree,” the Soldier sighed.

“So, you see, evil thoughts are more dangerous without any weapons as they direct the killer’s hand. A kind person will not sneer, rape, or kill. If a lost person changes his views, starts to value life, shows tolerance to the men who are as blind as himself, we will have love and knowledge on the Earth that will destroy the evil. A war against evil will bring peace and well-being to the Earth,” the Stranger smiled.

The Soldier became thoughtful. It seemed that the man was not saying anything special and his arguments were naïve and banal, but for some reason they penetrated his soul and infused him with hope to get out from absorbing nets of anguish. However giving it a little thought, he asked himself a question: “What if this man is just a hypnotist? What is his purpose? Why should he take risk? A provocation?”

“Why have you come here? Do you understand where you are now?”

“I know it is not a quiet place, but we will be able to escape,” the Stranger replied.

“The guy is apparently out of himself,” the Soldier had not had such a surprise for long.

“What do you think, partner? Does it make sense to hide until complete darkness and quietly crawl to our settlement, or do we have to go now? Pretend we are two cranks who have mistakenly made it to a closed area. If we are lucky and are not shot, we will play exalted nitwits,” he proposed openly showing his sarcasm.

“It’s no problem for me to pretend an exalted nitwit, so the second option is OK,” the Stranger smiled again.

“You even don’t have to play,” the Soldier was looking at him attentively. “You are smiling all the time.”

“I always smile when I’m happy,” the Stranger answered.

They were walking in silence for some time. Suddenly the Soldier halted.

“What has happened?” asked his new companion.

“Do not speak our tongue,” the Soldier whispered. “Locals can see us, but do not let them know who we are. It means they will spend time to think the situation over, then consult, inform the settlement, and meanwhile we will have time to leave. Pretend tourists.”

They were lucky not to see the surprised faces of local people, otherwise they would laugh out, seeing the rounded eyes and open mouths of local peasants, because the Stranger spoke the language, and excellently, of sacred texts which was not spoken daily anymore. Priests read the ancient manuscript, written in this language, only at the local community meeting.

The Soldier imitated him and spoke gibberish ruthlessly distorting words. Suddenly he noticed out of the corner of his eye that a teenager separated from the group of villagers standing nearby and rushed to the settlement.