Due West

It was a cold night. They were always cold nights. Steam shot off my barrel as I fired.

“What the Hell?” the man yelled. “That’s my car!”

I hated when they pointed out the obvious, but it makes for great exposition in my blogs about it later.

“I’m practicing,” I said.

“Well you better practice paying for the damages!” The man started walking toward me. I had seen the look many times, from West, from Nathan, from Sandra….he was going to punch me.

I lifted my gun at him. He didn’t stop. I fired off two shots, and immediately following each, a tire on his vehicle deflated. The left side of his car sank and he came to a halt, ducking with his arms over his head.

When he stopped cowering in fear and realized he was still alive, I said, “Look, if I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already. Now get out of here.”

The man ran off. As he approached the horizon, I raised my gun, adjusting for distance and landed a slug in his right shoulder. “A souvenir,” I said and got into my Nissan Rogue.

The drive back to the Company was a boring one. I used to spend long drives talking to my partner, Claude. Sometimes he was invisible, and a couple times I had left him at a 7/11, but there or not, he was a great conversationalist. I looked over at the empty passenger seat. There was no Claude. There was no Eden. No Haitian. I really need a partner, I thought.

When I arrived back at the office, I stopped Bob in the hallway. “So, I was thinking….”

“Never a good thing, Noah. Remember what happened last time you did that?”

“I know. I know. But this is about helping the Company.”

“What’s on your mind, Noah?” His use of my name in every sentence reminded me why I left the Company in the first place.

“I could use a partner.”

“That’s a good idea, Noah.”

“Yes, I thought so too.”

“Do you have anyone in mind, Noah?”

“I was thinking about West.”

“Hmm…., Noah.”

I could tell he was uneasy about the suggestion. He obviously wondered how loyal the boy would be. I knew from past experience he would be an effective bagging and tagging machine. He’s not the biggest fan of humanity, and I think a chance to prod it along in the right direction would appeal to him. And the flying, well that’s just cool. Imagine how quickly and surprisingly he could apprehend our subjects. But he was wary of the Company. I could understand Bob’s hesitation.

“I’m concerned about child labor laws, Noah.”

“Since when?”

“Since the whole Molly thing, Noah.”

It was true. My attempt to kill her would have devastated Primatech. Employing children is always a risky move on the part of secret organizations. They have a tendency to die, or become horribly injured. And dead children bring questions. We don’t want questions.

“Let me talk to him,” I said.

Bob nodded and said, “Noah,” as he walked off.

I got into my car and drove. “Where are we going?” I pretended an invisible Claude asked from the passenger seat.

“West,” I replied.