9-Amigos

9

Amigos

In pressure-filled situations there are certain kinds of people who have the uncanny ability to rise to the occasion.  In the heat of danger they, like some kind of mythical phoenix, unfurl their wings and bring forth courage that is unshakable.

The Doctor was not this kind of person.

“We are college kids.  Eisenhower inherited the rights to the rig from his dead dad or some shit, so we came to party.”  The Doctor was telling the General everything with very little coercion.

“How many of you are there?” The General asked, sternly.

“Ten,” The Doctor answered immediately and without hesitation.  “No, eleven.  I keep forgetting the Mexican.”

The General’s eyebrow went up.  “Mexican?”

The Doctor nodded.  “Yeah, we have him tied up in one of the briefing rooms.  He calls himself some weird name like, cat door… or cod roar or something like that…”

The General’s head cocked to the side as The Doctor franticly searched his mind for the right name.  “Cazador?”

The Doctor stopped sputtering nonsense as soon as the General said the name.  “Yeah, that’s it.”

The General’s mouth slowly curled into a smile.  “You college kids captured Cazador?”  He began to laugh out loud. “This is going to be a good day!”

He then said something In Spanish to the rest of his men and they all began to laugh together, loudly.  The Doctor was confused, so he began to laugh loudly, too.

The General noticed that The Doctor was laughing and stopped.

His men stopped.

They all stared at The Doctor, who cut his laughter off quickly.

 “Tell me, Gringo,” the General said, “what about this situation do you find funny?”

The Doctor shrugged.  “Sorry, I’m terrible with peer pressure.”

The General nodded and grinned.  “This is what you will do.  You will lead my men to all of your friends and they will round you all up and put you in the mess hall.  You will then lead me to Cazador.”

The General turned and seemed to give these instructions to one of his men in Spanish.  He then turned back to The Doctor.

“Do you think I could put some shorts on?” The Doctor asked.

One of the Mexicans racked the slide on his AK-47.

“I’m gonna take that as a no.”  The Doctor said, and snapped into movement, walking past.  The Mexicans all fell into line behind the very scared, naked medical student.

The General looked out over the ocean and slowly put a Cuban cigar to his lips before lighting it.  He took a long drag…

“Cazador,” he spoke to himself, “right under my own nose the whole time.”

****  

Ein shut the door behind him slowly.  Kim was standing behind him, staring.  The waves of embarrassment were starting to hit him now that his internal conflict had been quelled.  The fact that he had just spent the last ten minutes crying in front of a beautiful woman who he barely knew, was catching up with him.

God, I looked like a fairy.

 He slowly turned to meet Kim’s gaze.  She was wearing a soft smile and the look of someone who was concerned.  Pity too.  Of course there was pity in her eyes.  Ein saw it and hated it.  He hated himself.

“I…I… er…. Um… I’m really, really s-s-s-ssorry about that in there…  I just don’t know w-w-w-w-what came over-” Ein stumbled through the explanation.  His stutter was made worse by the situation.

Kim shook her head and cut him off.  “Stop.  Really, its okay.”

“No it isn’t.”  Ein said, his gaze returning to the floor.  His frustration was clear.

Kim seemed to think for a second.  “I’m sorry.  I just thought you would want to see that. I didn’t think it would bother you so much.”

Ein’s face became a shaky smile.  “No, I’m glad I saw it.”

Kim looked confused, “Why?”

“It helped me come to a decision.”  He said, a little confidence coming into his eyes.

Kim smiled and paused.  “Let’s go get some food, Ein.  I want to tell you something.”

Ein smiled, happy to be off the subject.  “Sounds g-g-g-good.”

That was when they heard the shots.

****

 Cazador’s eyes came open as the door knob began to twist.  He took a deep breath and centered himself.  He would have to find a way to get out of this chair and off this rig fast.  He knew Chavez would be here soon and then it would be too late.

The door swung open.  Cazador sighed as he watched to machine gun toting, Mexican soldiers move into the room and clear it for hostiles in a standard fashion.  One of them yelled the word ‘Clear’ in Spanish and in walked Cazador’s nightmare.

It was officially too late.

The General, who Cazador knew as Chavez, stood in front of him, frowning.

Chavez looked Cazador over and his frown twisted into a smile and then, into a loud laugh.

“Are you serious?”  Chavez said in Spanish between the laughter.  “The Great Cazador, tied to a chair brought down by spring breakers?!”

Cazador frowned and exhaled, showing his frustration.  Chavez continued, “The man whose code name is ‘The Hunter’!  Taken down by Doogie Howser and his friends!”  The laughter continued to the point where Chavez had to prop himself on the wall to keep from falling over.

“You know, my old friend,” Chavez continued to mock Cazador.  “If I had known that all I had to do was send the cast of ‘90210’ after you, I would have done it years ago!”

Cazador had had enough.  “We haven’t been friends for a long time Chavez.”

Chavez smiled and brought his laughter under control.  “Come now, is that really any way to talk to an ex-comrade?”

“How’s the eye?” Cazador asked.  The humor in Chavez’s tone emptied from him like the water in a dirty tub after the plug had been pulled.  Even one of the guards seemed to sweat as the tone completely changed.

Chavez stepped in and slapped Cazador across the face.  He then grabbed Cazador’s hair and ripped his head back with his left hand.  Chavez’s right drew a larger scary looking bowie knife and pressed it to Cazador’s cheek.

“I have waited a long time for this… old friend.”  Chavez said the last part with a certain amount of hatred which was reserved for this situation.

“I’m going to take my time.  I’m going to carve you up, and then, I’m going to kill you.” Chavez continued.

“Promises, promises,” Cazador spat out the words, covered in hatred.

Chavez smiled, his dirty breath wafting over Cazador’s face.  “Don’t worry.  I will make sure to lie your body out next to that whore.  I want you to see how little you lost your life for.”

Chavez released his hair and in the distance, a series of gunshots could be heard. Chavez’s smile returned to him, “Right now, I have to tend to my unexpected guests.”

He turned and left.  As he did, he gave the order to guard Cazador to the two men in the room.

****

Harriet was hurled into the mess hall by her arm with such force that she stumbled, rolling into the makeshift dance floor from the night before.  She regained her footing and saw Thad and five of the women that The Doctor had brought.  She knew she wouldn’t be able to remember their names.

One of the four Mexicans with large guns fired a quick burst into the air.  All of the girls screamed in fear when he did this, then seemed to shrink away into silence.  Thad had the same face of panic that she had seen in the hallway.  Harriet could tell he was fighting his demons and that he would be useless.

Harriet stood.  “What the hell is going on?” she asked the Mexican who seemed to be in charge.

He said nothing.

“I asked you a question!” She yelled, pushing her glasses up her nose and advancing on the Mexican.

“SILENCIO!” The Mexican yelled and stepped in back, handing her with such force, her glasses came off and skidded across the floor.  She staggered and hit the ground.

“Harriet!”  Thad finally seemed to break his curse and moved to her.  “Are you okay?”

Harriet grabbed her glasses and brushed the blood from her lip.  “Fantastic.”

Finally, a big scary looking General with an eye patch walked in.  Behind him was the very naked Doctor, a gun to the back of his head.

This must be Chavez.

Chavez surveyed the room, as if doing a head count.  “There are only seven.  Did you lie to me, naked man?”

The Doctor shook his head.  “Of course not, you’re missing two.”

Thad’s face dropped.  “You mother fucker.  What the hell are you doing?!”

The Doctor ignored Thad.  “One of them is an Asian girl and the other is a short pudgy kid that stutters all the time.  He’s the one that owns the rig.  It was his idea to-”

It was hard to continue to talk to Chavez as Thad’s right hand connected to the side of The Doctor’s face with so much force, it sent the naked man toppling, ass over head, to the floor.

“You piece of shit!”  Thad screamed at him and in an instant there were four machine guns aimed at his head, as well as Chavez’s holstered automatic pistol.

Thad froze in his spot and Chavez walked over.  “I can understand your anger.  I too, know what it is to be betrayed by a comrade, but I would like to ask that you refrain from further outbursts.  Okay?”

Thad nodded, the fear returning to his eyes.

Chavez turned to the room.  “This goes for everyone here.  Please be patient while we look for your friends.  If you are not, one these men here, will shoot you.”

Chavez turned to walk out and one of his soldiers looked at him and spoke in Spanish.  “Sir, why not kill them all now?”

Chavez shook his head.  “We find the others and kill them together.  You four, watch this room.  I have two on Cazador.  I will take the remaining four of us and find the Americans.”

The soldier nodded then Chavez looked at him with a smile.  “Then, we have some fun.”

****

“This way.”  Kim said as she grabbed Ein’s arm.

They began to run through the hallways of the rig.  Ein was  instantly confused.  “Kim, where are we going?  What the hell were those, gunshots?  And more importantly, how do you know where you are going? ”

“Just trust me!”  She said as they moved through the halls.

Suddenly, she stopped then looked around as if getting her bearings.  She then seemed to focus on a large section of the wall.  She walked up to it and popped some kind of level.  The wall opened into what had to be a storage closet.  Kim grabbed Ein and shoved him into the small space.  She got in after him, their bodies pressing up against each other without any extra room to move.

“Kim I-I-I-I-I don’t think we s-s-s-should be doing this right … er... um… now.” Ein said, blushing heavily.

Kim pressed her hand over his mouth.  “Shhhh!” She whispered, and they were silent. Kim motioned for Ein’s attention to go to the small vented window in the door.  He watched as the five men moved past and down the hall.  They were speaking in Spanish and one of them seemed to laugh at something as they moved on.

Kim slowly took her hand off Ein’s mouth.  He whispered angrily, “What in the hell is going on?!”

“I haven’t been honest with you,” Kim said, quietly.

Ein looked at her.  “I can see that!”

“We have to move, just-” Kim started, but Ein cut her off.

“I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on!”  Ein said, rooting himself in place.

Kim frowned.  “It’s a long story.”

“Give me the abridged version, then.”  Ein responded stubbornly.

Kim sighed, knowing she’d have to come clean….

TO BE CONTINUED….

8-Small Legacies

8

Small Legacies

The shower was absolutely splendid.  Eisenhower had found a large mass shower room and it, of course, like the rest of the rig, mysteriously worked.  The hot water seemed to rejuvenate Ein’s mind.  As he showered, he began to think about his dream and everything else that plagued him as of late.

The dream was the first.  He didn’t have any problems with figuring out what it meant since George Orwell’s Animal Farm was one of his favorite books.  It had been, since he had discovered it in Mr. Thomas’ third period social studies class when he was sixteen. The dream itself represented his standard loathing for the current American system of government.  Ein already knew this though, and he felt that the dream had been trying to tell him something.

Ein put this current problem aside and decided to move on to the problem of the mercenary locked in the briefing room.  It had been a day, so far, and Ein knew he would have to go down there soon to feed him.  He would have paid anything to not have to do this.

Very secretly, Eisenhower feared Cazador.  The machete wielding, Mexican haunted every shadow and dark corner.  Ein was afraid that if he went down there to feed him, he would find Cazador escaped and then he would spend the rest of his life wondering when the machete was going to come.

People had been treating him like a hero, but in all honesty, he had been scared half to death.  The blow he had struck to Cazador’s head had been out of desperation and instinct, nothing more.

He had almost killed a man out of fear.

His rubbed his face trying to shake that image out of his head when he heard Kim’s voice calling his name.  He raised an eyebrow and turned, seeing the handle to the door move.  Ein opened his mouth to yell something, but it was too late.

The door swung open.  “Ein are you in- OH MY GOD!”

Ein made a quick and painful chirping noise and panicked, spinning around to find something to cover himself but there was nothing.  Kim pulled backward and, as if taking cover in a gunfight, shielded herself from the naked Ein.

 “I’m so sorry Ein, I just wanted to show you something I found.  I didn’t mean to ...uh... you know.”  Kim sputtered, embarrassed.

“Well…  At least now you know where the shower is.”  Ein said, followed by an awkward chuckle.

“Yeah, that’s true.”  Kim laughed too hard, adding to the feeling of unease.

A silence followed.

“Kim?”  Ein asked from inside the room.

“Still here.” She said, still sounding out of place.

“Can you… um… er…. h-h-h-hand me my shorts?”

“Oh,” Kim flushed red and looked down to see them on the ground.  “Sure.”

****

The Doctor slowly awoke.  For the first couple of seconds, he fought to remember where he was, how he had gotten there and what had happened the night before.  This is a common occurrence when you drink too much.  The Doctor then looked to his right and saw a tangled mess of blonde hair attached to a woman.  He wasn’t sure if it was Tiffany or Candy.  He had a hard time telling them apart.  He then looked the other way and saw another naked woman, the brunette, Sandy.  The three of them were all lying on his double sized air mattress, cramped under one blanket.

The Doctor then lifted the blanket and looked down.

He was naked.

Double whammy.

He grinned and got out of bed, buck naked.  He had to pee.  He stumbled into the metal hallway trying to find the bathroom.  The one thing he hated most about the rig so far was that all the rooms and hallways looked the same.  It was impossible to remember what was where.  After a couple of minutes of wandering, his waste problem was becoming a crisis.

Finally, he gave up on the bathroom and moved to the stairs, descending a couple of levels until he came out through one of the walkways above the ocean, below the actual structure.  He took a deep breath and smiled at the smell of the ocean breeze.  It was time to give back.

The Doctor took position and began to urinate over the railing, a sigh of relief escaping his mouth.  While peeing, he whistled, slowly recalling the momentous events of the previous night.  He even remembered getting that little nerd, Ein, wasted… and hadn’t he left with Eggroll?

“Maybe I got the little guy laid, that would be a hell of a thing, eh?” He said to himself.

It was then he noticed the boat.

It was a junky little thing, like a PT boat from Nam or something; big enough for maybe half a dozen people and some cargo.

“Huh, that’s strange.”  He said to himself, as he finished peeing.

He then turned to head back to the stairs.

He stopped, suddenly, because the barrel of a large assault rifle pointed at his head.  Behind the gun was a scary looking Mexican wearing aviator sunglasses and desert camouflage.

The Mexican motioned for him to follow, and The Doctor nodded, desperately.

Slowly, he followed the Mexican up the stairs and into the hallway inside the structure. Although now there was a whole group of militants.  Ten of them total, including the one with the gun on The Doctor.  All of them could have been clones of the first, with the machine gun in Chad’s face.

All but one.

In the center of the hall was another Mexican, a half smoked cigar coming out of his mouth.  Instead of a machine gun, he had a side-arm pistol in a fast draw holster around his waist.  He was dressed like Castro.  His head was shaved, and he had a full, but not overgrown, beard.

The Doctor, however, would remember him for the eye patch.

 The scar of a deep face wound began on his forehead and moved south over his eye and ended on his cheek.

This man looked at the naked American medical student.  “English?”

The Doctor nodded.

“This is good,” the General said, then he continued.  “So, at first when I realized there are people on my rig, I think that someone has found my cargo hold.  That a rival group or maybe the Americans, and this worries me.”

The Doctor listened as the General monologued.  “Then, I see a naked gringo stumble down the hall and take a piss off the side of the rig and I know now, none of these things have happened.”

The Doctor shook his head back and forth.  “So, my friend, the question I have to ask is this; who are you, and what are you doing on my rig?”

The Doctor swallowed, nervously.

****

Thankfully, they had moved off the subject of Eisenhower’s nudity.  Instead, Ein had started to tell her about the dream he had the night before.  He couldn’t, for the life of himself, figure out why he was babbling about this to a woman he had just met.  He had envisioned telling Harriet about it first.  She would have known what to tell him.

“… So, then I see the chipmunks on the island and they are happy and I wake up.”  Ein finished.

Kim took it all in, then replied.  “Well, that is interesting.”

“I- I- I look crazy now.” Ein said, feeling his confidence slip.

Kim shook her head.  “Not at all, I think the dream is cool.  Very George Orwell.”

Ein’s eye’s brightened.  She knew Orwell!  “Animal Farm!  That’s what I said.”

“Actually, I was just thinking about what I found.  It’s spooky how it fits in with your dream.”  Kim said, as they reached a door on what seemed to be the top floor.

“So what is this discovery?”  Ein asked, genuinely interested.

Kim smiled.  “See for yourself.”

She opened the door and walked through.  Ein followed into what seemed to be the executive quarters.  It had its own bedroom, a small kitchen and an office nook.  It could have been a good one-bedroom apartment.  It was easily nicer than anywhere Ein had ever lived.

“Wow, the power of money, huh?” Ein said as he looked around.  He thought it was funny that the guy who probably did the least work on the rig had the nicest room.

“It was your dads when he was on the rig.”  Kim said suddenly, and Ein turned.

“Really?  How do you know that?”  He asked, suddenly understanding that it was a simple connection, seeing as though his father was an executive.

“Take a look at this.”  In the center of the main room, there was a couch and a small coffee table.  On it, sat a large remote control.

Kim picked up the control and pressed a button.  The large flat screen mounted on the far wall clicked on.

Sitting in a big cushioned chair sat Harrison Holster, his face almost yellow from the kidney failure that would eventually kill him.  He looked sickly and full of sadness.  The man looked at the camera.

“Eisenhower, I can only assume you have found your way to your inheritance and are watching this DVD, which will be my last recorded… words.”  The ghost spoke slowly, obviously weak from his condition.

Ein’s face dropped and he slowly sat on the couch, his legs unable to support him.  Kim sat down next to him, pausing the recording.

“I stopped it here,” she said softly.  “I knew this next part was for you.”

“Press play,” Ein said softly.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yeah, but please, stay.”  Ein said this, not quite understanding why he wanted her there.  Maybe he just didn’t want to do this alone.

She nodded and he felt relieved.  She calmly pressed play and the recording continued.

The ghost of father’s past continued his haunting last words.  “I will be brief, as I don’t have much time.  I know you are probably full of emotion’s right now.  Rage.  Hate. Confusion.  You must wonder where I was all your life.  Honestly, I regret not being there for you, but I am not made to be a father.  Your mother and I were very different people.  Instead, I agreed to send money and support as long as she sent me pictures and updates.”

The old man began to tear up.  “I have watched you your entire life and I couldn’t be more proud.  Obviously, you choose a different life then mine.  Yours is a harder path and I have respected you for that.  I also see your hatred for the system through the various protests and marches you organized and, although I don’t understand the rebellion, not fully anyway, I respect it.”

He began a coughing fit.  It lasted for several minutes and Ein didn’t think he was going to be able to finish.

Harrison Holster brought it together.  “This Oil rig sits in international waters.  I give it to you as a sanctuary from the things that hurt you; from a river with which you refuse to swim along .  This rig is my last legacy and the only thing a failed old man can offer a son that has exceeded him.  Goodbye, Eisenhower Mills.  It was my honor and pleasure to know you.”

The DVD switched off.

Tears rolled down Ein’s cheeks.

TO BE CONTINUED…