Tales of the Bounty Part 4

She is being pulled thirty feet in the air. More laughing, more laughing. He can see better now that the initial shock has worn off, even though the wailing of his granddaughter does not allow him to focus completely. He is holding her tight to his chest trying to muffle the sound slightly. Not only is he panicking, but he is hoping that the sound of Angela crying will not irritate whoever grabbed her.

The stairwell to the next platform is only a hundred yards away. The dial for it is a hand pad with a red glow. Jim slams his hand onto it causing the circuits to pause and turn green. The stair way slides over from the above track slowly and the concrete steps groan from the weight. Feels like an eternity until it locks into place with a jet of steam. In a few moments Jim is up the stairs.

He can't remember the last time he ran up these stairs. On the platform, there is a nice trail of blood from where the claw came down. At the end of the platform is the service desk. There is pair of feet hanging out from his edge, his daughter's feet. The platform seems long and almost wavering as he runs, halfway down to the desk a man appears in front of him, like he pulled himself through thin air.

The man is not tall but definitely strange. He is about 5'9 and very scrawny. He looks old but very young, like his adolescence never faded away. His face is clean shaven, unblemished and very white. He has blue eyes and thin eye brows. He looks about twelve years old. His hair is long like the man before. There are colored beans in it; a symbol of strength in the Farcry culture. He is wearing dark pants and boots almost identical to the man from before.

The only major difference in clothing is the trench-coat, thick and buttoned tightly. It is far too long for him. The sleeves hang past his hands, so they are hidden by at least six inches of cloth. He looks like a child who did not dress himself properly. He smiles long and wicked at Jim.

"What'de yah want fat man?" he said in a low voice.
Jim was nearly crying at this point, his chest was trembling, so was Angela.
"What, where is my daughter?"
The man looks around slowly and back at Jim. Another wicked smile this time at Angela.
"You can't see her from here?"
"Why did you attack her, she didn't even do anything, whats going on?"
The man or boy shook his head side to side strangely, like he was dizzy or had been holding his breath. Something metal drifted down from his sleeve it caught Jim's eye it looked like a knife blade.

"When did you last see him?" the man boy said.
"See who? Who are you talking about? Where is my daughter?!"
"I already told you where she is. Are you so old you are deaf? She is down at the hut or shack whatever it is."
Jim dashed around the man quickly to go see her.

He did not get very far before a metal rope thin and dull whipped around his neck. It went around two or three times just enough to break the skin and cause him to choke. It took all his concentration to fall onto his knees and not drop Angela. On the end of the rope was a round piece of metal almost shaped like a yo-yo.

"Did you see him? The man with the mask. Did he stroll by and try to hop on a train?"
Jim tried to speak but only blood came out, Angela was wailing and had soiled herself.
"You can just nod your head, I don't need you to talk," he said loudly.
Jim nodded blood was trickling down his shirt in a subtle stream. He released the tension on the cord and if Jim looked behind himself, he would have seen the weapon emerge from the man's sleeve.
"Thank you. Did he say where he was going?"
Jim could not move. It took all his strength just hold onto Angela. He pulled the cord a bit tighter.
"Did he say where he was going?"
Jim shook his head feebly.

In one quick moment, Jim was on the ground. He avoided crushing Angela and put the quick weight on his shoulder which promptly popped and snapped in reply. The blood from his throat was in his eyes. His scream roared across the empty Falls. He turned back towards the man after a few moments. The blood in his eyes made it hard to make out the scene.

There stood another man talking to him; a much taller man. He had broad shoulders and long hair like the other ones. The rest of the details became lost in blood. They started crawling towards Jim's feet. Jim shields Angela beneath him.

"What are you doing? This is unacceptable and you are wasting time." a strong voice said.
"I was getting information you mess. Now stay out of my way." the one with the sleeves replied.
Jim turned back to stare at them, things were getting clearer, his tears were washing out the blood.
"You should not have harmed them. They do not know what's going on. When this is all over, if you are still alive, I will kill you" the strong voice said.

The other man laughed a high, whiny, annoying laugh. Something exploded out of his sleeve. It gleamed of silver and steel. A long club appeared in the man's hand and spun around adjust to the coiling weapons. It was a blur under Jim's bloody heavy eyes. He saw the weapons go limp in the fluorescent light. Someone laughed hysterically.
"Okay, okay Attila. I won't bother them anymore." The man with the long sleeves sneered.
The larger man circled him around staring at him.
"Good."

The man with the sleeves looked over to Jim crawling along towards his daughter. A long smile crossed his face.
"He has left the Falls and will meet with the others at Zens. We have less than nine hours" the tall man barked.
In a blur of dark coats and beads, both men fell from the platform with the a burst of cutting air trailing behind them.

It took a few minutes for Jim to make it to Jan. She was on her back with her throat cut open and small pool of blood had formed beneath her white neck. Her eyes were closed. Angela was wailing wildly. He picked up her head and laid it in his lap. It was heavy and damp. Jim knew there was not enough time to save her. She had lost too much blood and the EMT's would take too much time to arrive.

He held his only daughter close to her and pressed Angela in close. As he was crying, his tears fell on her nose and trickled down her face. He smeared them away with his hand which was shaking and caked with blood.
"Sir, do you need help? What happened?" a small voice said over his shoulder.
Jim turned around to see three medics planted with 3 giant red crosses on their chest. They were the EMT's stationed at the entrance to the Falls.

They quickly pushed Jim out of the way and started to fill her with needles and tubes.
"How did you guys know we were here?" Jim mumbled over a wailing Angela, horrified at the men who were saving her mother. One of the EMTs looked back over his shoulder irritated at Jim and went back to work on Jan.
"Some guy with a mask told us there was going to be a medical emergency on this platform so we came rushing over," the EMT said hurriedly.
Jim turned white with silence.
"Yeah, he said you guys would be needing help right away," the other EMT said and began to preform CPR.
"Guess he was right," the other EMT chimed in.