Fourth Vector Ch. 08

"How did you find me?" asked Barak.

"By the luck of the gods, that's how!" said Vera. "You left without me! I thought once word got out that Daimanos was dead, you'd come for me and take me with you!"

Barak looked at her incredulously. "But you were always his whore, not mine. Why would I come after you?"

Vera looked at him with distressed eyes. "Did you not desire me? I saw the way you looked at me. How you pitied me when I was with the king. Did you not wish it was you in his place? That it was you that got to own my body? I know I did!"

"You did?" said Barak softly.

"Every single day!" said Vera. "I know the look in your eyes when you watched me. I know it was you that wanted your cock in me, not that of Daimanos. I wanted you just as badly! I thought that now things could be different and you and I could be together."

Barak's eyes traveled down her body and then met her eyes once again. "Be together?" he whispered. He scanned her immediate surroundings. The woman was not close to him but as his eyes traveled to both sides of the path, he noticed something crumpled on the path not far from Vera's feet. "What's that, Vera?"

Vera looked over at the crumpled heap and smiled in triumph. "It's proof. Proof of my devotion to you. I stumbled upon the group of bad men chasing you. The wicked king Heron and the foreigner Jack Easterbrook. I tricked them into trusting me and letting me join their group. Oh, you would have loved how they took to the poor but friendly former whore." Vera laughed in triumph before resuming her story.

"Anyway, once their backs were turned, I managed to kill the one man that was most responsible for Daimanos' death. His former minister Nikias who had so callously betrayed our king and joined forces with our enemies. I waited until the man's back was turned and then I plunged a knife right between his shoulder blades." Vera mimed the stabbing with her hands and now that Barak could see closer, it appeared that the corpse on the ground did have a knife sticking out of his back.

"You managed to kill Nikias?" asked Barak before descending down from the stoa. He started the walk over to where Vera was. "What about the rest of the group? Heron and Easterbrook. Where are they?"

Vera grinned. "Not far from here. I can show you exactly where they are. You can get rid all your enemies in one day and then we'll be free."

Barak kept walking toward the woman. "What do you mean we'll be free?"

"I mean you and I can finally be together," said Vera. "It can be the way it should be. Just you and me, Barak. I know how badly you want me. I know how much you want to fuck me. To make me scream with pleasure. I want that just as much as you do. I want to feel your cock in me driving me crazy while I cum for you over and over and over! I don't want you to ever stop fucking me, Barak."

Barak's grin grew larger as he approached the girl. Behind him, his men had emerged from the temple, each of them brandishing their weapons to cover his approach to the former whore. But he felt like he was on the edge of a dream. For so long, he had dreamt of Vera and her stunning body. Now she would be his.

He finally reached her, and she reached out to caress his face. As he stared down into her lovely blue eyes, he snapped an order back to his men. "Check his body. Make sure it's really him."

At once, Otis and Manos sprung forward to where the body of Nikias lay. It was going too perfect. In two days' time, he would have sold off all the gold and be on the way to some island far away from Sorella, and now he would have Vera with him.

Life was grand.

That is, it was grand before he heard the first shots. Two shots pierced through the morning air and before he knew it, both Otis and Manos dropped to the dirt, dead in an instant. Barak's eyes went wide as he saw the flashing barrels hidden just beyond the stone corner and instantly leapt back toward the temple.

In that moment, a huge firefight erupted as his other men, led by Spiros, hit the ground to fire off rounds in the prone position. The sounds of bullets whizzing by followed Barak as he rushed back to the safety of the temple. Even Vera had hit the deck, yet from this distance, he could still hear her yelling back to the gunmen, "Shoot him! He's going to get away!"

Treacherous whore.

Barak hurried up the ramp into the main stoa of the temple right before feeling a round graze his leg. He stumbled and managed to catch himself before falling headfirst into the marble column, and quickly ducked behind it.

The shooting didn't last very long. Around him, marble cracked and crashed to the floor as shots covered the front of the temple, but before long, it was only him left. None of his men made it back inside the temple. With the shooting almost over save for the few shots that peppered his position, he had to assume the rest of Spiros' men were dead.

For that reason, he stayed pressed up against the wall, waiting and unwilling to face his attackers alone.

--------

"Come on out, Barak," yelled Jack not far from the temple. "If you surrender peacefully, we might just let you live."

Jack wasn't surprised when the barrel of the man's musket poked out from around the corner, firing a single shot in their direction. Thankfully, he'd been laying against the ground, his sights trained on Barak's hiding spot behind the column and thus in no danger of being hit. Still, it was a precarious position. As long as Barak remained hidden behind the column, they faced a real danger in rushing the temple. One wounded man with a musket could still kill and the last thing he wanted was to come all this way only to lose someone at the very end.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you, Easterbrook?" yelled back Barak.

"What I want is to end this peacefully without any more people having to die," said Jack. "If you can come out, we can stop this violence."

"Said the man who killed all of my men," said Barak. "You'd just as soon kill me too."

"Like you hired that man to kill us in the forest?" asked Jack. "It seems we're both guilty of killing."

"So what makes you in the right and me in the wrong?"

"Because I'm not trying to steal gold that rightfully belongs to the Sorellan people," said Jack.

"Bah," scoffed Barak. "To hell with the Sorellan people. They were willing to fight and kill each other over two men's vanity. They brought total destruction, war, and pestilence to their land and for what? Nothing! They don't deserve this gold."

"And you do? What have you done to make you deserve it so much more?" asked Jack.

"I had to put up with that nitwit Daimanos for years, Jack!" yelled Barak. "You only saw him for a brief period of time. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to have to deal with a moron every single day? Whose own self-importance blocked out every single source of critical thinking? The man wasn't fit to wash shit from the streets of the city, and he was their king! What does that tell you about the Sorellans, Jack?"

"That the wrong man tried to take power and paid the ultimate penalty for it," said Jack.

"He may have, but the Sorellans haven't. I'm going to get off this mountain, Jack. I'm going to give this gold away and take my cut in two days' time! And I'm going to go far away from this cursed island and live like a king! The king that Daimanos should have been!"

"You're not going to do any of that," said Jack calmly. "But if you surrender now, you can at least keep your life. We won't let you leave this island with any of the gold, but at least you'll be alive. Rotting in a jail cell for the rest of your life, but it's better than death."

"That sounds like one hell of a choice you've given me," said Barak sarcastically. "Let's see here, escape with the gold and live like a king or surrender to you and get passed around like prime meat for the rest of my days. Gee, I wonder which option I'll pick!" As if to emphasize the point, he pointed his musket back around the corner and shot out at the open field again.

Jack didn't bother responding, merely sighing against the sights of his rifle. Behind him, the rest of the group, save for Elektra and Greg, were still safely behind the stone corner, just out of shot in case Barak should get any crazy ideas. To his left, Elektra was trying to get a better vantage point on Barak's position from a nearby cliff while Greg did the same thing from his right flank. Unfortunately, with how the mountain blocked the position of the temple, Elektra was the only one who might have a shot on the man.

Hearing rustling behind him, he watched as Nikias crawled along the ground and settled next to Jack. "Not having any luck, I take it?"

Jack pursed his lips. "Would you surrender if it was you?"

"Probably not. I wonder if I can try anything though."

"It couldn't hurt," said Jack.

Nikias called out loudly from his position. "Barak, it's Nikias. Why don't you come out and surrender? We have you surrounded."

"Oh, so the dead man lives," yelled back Barak. "How goes it, traitor? It seems your position is much better now than the last time I saw you."

"I wish I could say the same for you, Barak," said Nikias.

"I'm wondering how you're still alive, Nikias. I thought Alcydes was supposed to kill you."

"Didn't you hear? Alcydes wasn't quick enough," said Nikias. "It was I who ended his life, not the other way around."

"I should have guessed that one. Alcydes was always more brawn than brain. A blunt instrument if nothing else."

"I know," said Nikias. "That's why I had to kill him first."

"Do you know who gave the orders to kill you?" taunted Barak. "It was me. I was the one who persuaded Daimanos to have you killed."

"And for what purpose? Because all of a sudden, Barak's star didn't burn nearly as brightly as before?"

"Because I knew you to be a fake!" yelled Barak. "I knew you were working for Heron all along. Don't forget, Nikias, that I had my spies just as you had yours!"

"So why didn't you tell Daimanos from the beginning?" asked Nikias. "Why didn't you tell him when I was made minister?"

"Because I thought I might see if you could be useful to my purposes," said Barak. "But you frustrated my attempts at every turn. When I figured out that you intended to use your position to bring about Daimanos' ruin, instead of merely enriching yourself, I decided you would be of no use to me! That's how I persuaded Daimanos that you were working with the enemy. That's how I talked the king into making you a marked man. Alcydes was only so happy to pull the trigger—mad dogs usually are. But then I'd finally be rid of you!"

"All the good that plan did you," said Nikias. "I'd say you're the one at disadvantage now."

"There's still hope while I still breathe! If anyone should know that, it's you!"

Before Nikias could respond again, Jack cut him off. "This isn't helping. If anything, it's making him more defiant. We need to try something else."

Nikias pursed his lips. "Any ideas?"

Jack thought to himself for a few moments before a smile began to spread on his lips. "Go get Vera. Tell her to stay low and join me over here."

Nikias nodded and quickly hustled back to the safety of the cliff. Jack was unsure if Barak was watching because another shot rang out from the temple shortly after yet no harm came to Nikias. Jack fired a few bursts to cover the man's retreat. The temple went quiet shortly after and stayed that way until Vera crouched down near Jack a few minutes later.

"Nikias said you wanted me?"

Jack nodded. "We need a way to get him to come out on his own. Since you were so good at it the first time around, I was hoping we might get a repeat performance from you?"

Vera smiled. "I'll do my best!"

She then brought both of her hands to cup her mouth. "Barak, it's Vera."

The sounds of laughter began again from the temple. "Come to try and seduce me again, dear? I'm guessing that was all a ploy to get me out of the temple?"

If Jack had expected Vera to take the soft approach again, he was very quickly surprised by the words that came out of her mouth next.

"Of course it was," said Vera with a cruel laugh. "Only someone as pathetic and idiotic as you would have fallen for that."

There was no immediate response from Barak but if Jack had to guess, the man was probably in there mashing his teeth. When he didn't respond after another minute, Vera tried again.

"Do you really think any woman would desire someone like you? You're completely pathetic! The way those lecherous eyes watched me while I got fucked by a real man was absolutely sickening. You disgust me!"

There was still no response from Barak.

"I doubt you could have satisfied me at all," said Vera brutally. "I saw how you got hard when you watched Daimanos fuck me from behind. It was all I could do not to laugh! Your cock is so tiny that it barely pressed out from your tunic! To think you ever could have satisfied me, that's a joke—"

"Fuck off, you whore!" yelled Barak in an alarmingly aggressive tone. "Back to the harem with you to suck off another pathetic king!"

"At least it'll be a man who could satisfy me," shot back Vera. "Not you, never you. You couldn't satisfy anything with that pathetic excuse for a cock in your pants. You're a joke, Barak. You know all the girls in the harem laughed about you behind your back? None more than me."

"Keep your mouth shut, you filthy whore," growled Barak.

Jack could tell that her words were beginning to affect him more so than anyone's before. In such a way, he realized that she had been entirely right. Barak did have something for Vera. It was the only way they were able to tempt him out of the temple, and now enraging him to the point of delirious anger might be their quickest chance of getting him out once again.

"Or what?" mocked Vera. "You'll do what exactly? You couldn't do anything if you tried. All of your plans fell in on themselves because you're half the man you think you are. You're nothing because you've always been nothing and you'll never be anything greater than nothing!"

"And you'll never be anything more than a dead king's airheaded plaything!"

In the next instant, a deranged-looking Barak leapt out from the marble column he'd been hiding behind. Brandishing his musket, it was leveled right in Vera and Jack's direction. It was almost too soon for a reaction, and Vera's eyes closed to await the inevitable.

A shot pierced the air and echoed through the temple, followed by another and then another. One of those shots came from the barrel of Jack's own rifle but he was afraid to look to his side at Vera. He watched Barak crumble into a broken heap on the stoa of the temple floor, and then a shout from his left caught his attention.

"I got him," yelled Elektra while holding up her rifle in triumph.

Jack turned to look at his side, finding a wide-eyed Vera looking back at him.

"Are you okay?" he whispered.

"Yeah. Are you?"

Jack smiled. "Never better."

"Is everyone else all right?" he yelled back to the rest of the group.

"Good as gold over here," yelled back Greg from his position on the flank.

"We're all good back here," said Heron.

Jack began to stand up, and while keeping his rifle trained on the corpse of Barak, he made his way slowly to the temple. After rushing up the main staircase, he stood over the barely breathing minister as his blood made a small pool on the temple floor. Jack quickly kicked his musket out of the way, even though there was little need. Barak wasn't much longer for this world.

"You've lost, Barak," said Jack while he leaned down next to the gravely wounded minister.

Barak seethed through his teeth, now a mass of bloody red. "You haven't won, Easterbrook. You can't forestall the inevitable. This is just the beginning."

With that, the minister's strength gave out and his head fell to the cold floor beneath him. As the man died, Vera appeared at his side.

"What do you think he meant by that? What's just the beginning?" she asked.

Jack shook his head. "I have no idea."

They were soon joined by the others, with Greg and Elektra reaching them first. Elektra wore a satisfied smile on her face as she joined her comrades.

"Great shooting, Elektra," said Jack. "You did it. You were the one to kill him."

"It serves him right," said Elektra before turning to face Jack. "Besides, you can consider us even now."

Jack scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "Even?"

She nodded quickly. "I wanted to be the one to kill Daimanos, but you did it instead. Now, I get to have the final part in ending that legacy by killing his last minister."

Jack chuckled. "That you did. And I'm glad you're on our side more than anything."

Elektra smiled as her father reached the rest of the group. He quickly pulled his only daughter into a hug as Vera and Kat did the same.

"Is it over now? He's dead, right?" asked Kat.

Jack nodded his head. "It looks to be that way. Let's find the gold though first. That will be the true test."

"While you do that, I'll scope out the rest of the temple," said Greg. "Just in case anyone is still hiding in the back."

The rest of the group save for Greg descended back down the temple stairs and entered the tiny courtyard on the side of the building. At this point in the day, the second wagon was nearly full, evidence that Barak had almost completed his mission.

Jack grabbed one of the tarps that covered the wagon and pulled it free, letting it crumple against the ground. He did the same with another and another until finally pulling free the last tarp, causing an astonished gasp to emerge from all of them.

Underneath was no more than ninety different packs, all filled to the brim with golden coins. Jack scooped his hand into one, letting the soft metal slip through his fingers one by one. "Wow," he whispered, never having seen so much gold in his life. It made the chest he had locked up on theDestiny look minuscule in comparison.

"The temple treasure," whispered Heron, just as entranced. "There's so much more than I thought there'd be."

Elektra hopped to the side of the wagon and began to count. "Eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven . . . eighty-seven bags full of treasure!"

What about the other wagon?" asked Jack.

Nikias moved to the other one to undo the tarps covering it and found a similar situation. "Almost seventy bags here!"

"Absolutely incredible," said Heron while reaching into one of the bags that didn't contain coins. Inside, he pulled out a golden crown and held it directly in front of his face. "Do you have any idea what this is? This is the crown of the first king of Sorella. This is Decon's crown!"

The rest of the Sorellans gazed on in childlike wonder. There was enough treasure here to make a single man rich beyond his wildest dreams. Even without the temple treasure, just the portion that had belonged to Daimanos was enough to put the country back together. It was a new hope for the Sorellan people.

Jack looked around. "There's enough of us here that we can start to put this back. Let's put the temple treasure back where it belongs. Safe within the temple."

Heron gave him a grateful nod of approval.

For the next several hours, they began to unload the massive temple treasure and place it back where it belonged. It was slow-going—not only was each individual bag extremely heavy but they couldn't just be thrown back into the repository. Barak and his men had robbed the statues of the god and the first king of diadems and jewels as well as had broken into glass containers that held the various pieces of treasure. All had to be put back just as it was found, and for that reason, it was slow and tedious work.

A few hours into the restoration, Jack was carrying a particularly heavy bag across his shoulders past the large statue of Malicoe when he heard Kat call his name from behind.