Aberrant: 200X - Seasonal Blues

[Eingar]

The large man sat in the darkness of his room, gazing out at the city beyond the hotel balcony. The gloom was broken intermittently by flashes of vehicle headlights from the street below as well as the flickering of an old-fashioned neon sign. Asian techno-pop music blared from the club across the street, and he could hear people laughing, shouting, arguing and flirting as they made their way from one bar to the next. The french windows were wide open, the warm night air swirling around the apartment like a lover's caress, redolent with scents of incense, perfume, sweat and pollution.

Bangkok. But for a handful of differences, this hotel and the city beyond could be anyplace. The large man snorted softly, a tired exhalation that was more a sigh, and tilted his head back, draining the bottle of Sang Thip before letting it fall to the carpet beside four other empties. He belched and wiped the back of one hand over his mouth. Apparently, this stuff could make people see things and lose their memory...

But so far, I'm not impressed... Einherjar thought to himself with a wry sense of amusement as a hand reached down for the next full bottle. He'd been in Bangkok for two days now, with five more to go before his furlough was up, and the Elite could feel himself slipping back into the apathy that had gripped him before signing on with DeVries. He'd spent one day sightseeing and then hadn't left his hotel room. At least the service here wasn't lacking though. As soon as he had arrived, the concierge had practically bent over backwards for his nova guest, offering him all sorts of services and substances. Einherjar had tolerated the servile crawling with barely concealed distaste, but at least the booze kept coming. He flipped the cap off the new bottle and took a big swallow, belching again. This stuff was vile and rough, a sort of local whiskey with other things added, and was doing a reasonable job of giving him a buzz.

He heard the door behind him open and the whispering voice of the concierge. A shuffle of feet and a gust of mingled perfume told the keen-sensed man that the little pimp had brought several girls in with him.

"Sir?" The man called out. Einherjar stayed quiet, but reached out and turned on the table lamp beside him. "Ahh, there you are sir. I bring you girls, as promised! Nice girls, fun and clean!"

"Bring them over." The nova's voice rumbled, blue eyes studying the four women as they were ushered over and stood in front of him. They were plainly nervous, though he couldn't have been their first nova customer. In the old days, any one of these young women would have had zero trouble getting a modelling career. Now, with novas as the new beautiful people, the best they saw for themselves was as high-priced company. He pointed at the one on the far right, a delicate petite beauty with long dark hair and large eyes. He doubted she was over sixteen. He wondered why he didn't care. She smiled seductively at him.

"Just one, sir?" The concierge's grin was calculating. "Sir doesn't want all the girls, perhaps? Tired, eh?" His chuckle died off in a soft rattle as Einherjar looked him in the eye. There was a long moment of tension.

"Just one it is. GOOD choice, sir. Skilled and warm..." Einherjar flicked his hand towards the door in an unmistakeable command. The man and the remaining three women filed out hastily. As the door shut, the blond nova rose from his chair, bottle still in hand. Clad in a simple dressing robe he walked towards the bedroom, the girl following. Once there, he shucked the robe and moved to the bed, feeling her eyes on his back.

"You will find scented oils in that cabinet." He told her without looking around. "Remove that pretty dress and fetch them, then come over here." He lay down as he spoke, listening to her undress and move around the room. Her slight weight joined him on the bed, kneeling beside his large form. He sighed in contentment as she warmed some oil in her hands, then started to massage his back with broad, soft strokes. She stroked and kneaded at his iron hard muscles for some time, then doing his front as he rolled over. She met his eyes and smiled warmly, the smile not quite filling her eyes, but he didn't care. Her touch was arousing him as he let the sensations take his care away, fill him with something other than apathy. He closed his eyes momentarily, remembering another woman with eyes that were anything but impassive, another touch that had aroused him...

He sat up, his eyes still half closed as he cupped the girl's face in his hands and kissed her deeply, as though she were someone else.

************************************

He watched her as she dressed, the pale dawn light outlining her slender curves. Getting out of bed, he padded barefoot through to the main room and picked up his wallet. He turned and held out a wad of notes as she came out of the bedroom.

"Here. Twenty thousand baht, and thank you." She took the money with a pleased smile and tucked it into her purse. He winced slightly as he noticed bruises on her wrists and upper arms. "I'm sorry that I hurt you." He motioned at the marks. The girl looked down at them, then smiled up at him.

"I did not notice the hurt when you did it." She laughed, then winked salaciously and wiggled her hips as though uncomfortable. "Just as I am only now starting to feel the other hurts you did to me. I have suffered worse, and enjoyed myself less." This last was delivered matter-of-factly, with a shrug. Einherjar peeled off a 1000-baht note and pressed that into her hands.

"Again, thank you." He said quietly. She smiled at him, a genuine smile, and walked towards the door. She turned just as she reached it.

"If you need someone to keep you company again, ask for Tulaya." She said with smile, then was gone. Einherjar just shrugged and turned to order breakfast. He wouldn't be asking for her again. In fact, he planned to be gone from Bangkok by lunchtime.

[Eingar]

The Havana sunrise woke him first. He lay in bed, listened to the whirr of the air-con mingle with the slow breathing of the woman next to him, and watched the ceiling turn pale rose as dawn hit the city outside.

Ein folded his hands behind his head and relaxed. The woman had been a revelation. My first nova... he mused to himself, glancing sideways at the still-sleeping brunette next to him. She was curled up on her side, the harsh, commanding mien gone from her pretty face, replaced by the faint curve of a smile on her lips. Unlike his previous encounters on this sabbatical, she was neither whore nor groupie. She was a player of some kind, of that he was certain. All he knew was that her name was Stephanie. They hadn't talked much. She had made it fairly plain that his conversation wasn't what she was interested in, all but demanding that he come to her apartment "for awhile". That had been yesterday afternoon. They had fucked energetically throughout the evening and into the night, pausing only for food and drink, until finally they had both collapsed atop the bed and all but passed out.

Ein could hear her bodyguards outside as one shift relieved another. They'd been out there all night, along with the surveillance team in the street. Definitely someone important, but not famous. Wonder who she is, really. He stretched and slid out of bed, heading to the bathroom. Her watchers kept good comms drill, referring to her as "The principal" and never by name. Professional.

He did his business and came back into the bedroom, leaning against the doorpost and regarding his bed partner. Stephanie had been confident and sexy both in bed and out of it, knowing what she wanted and taking it. The sex had been almost combative, a constant struggle for pace and dominance. It had also been amazing, keeping him fully engaged, unable to picture making love to another face on this one's body as was his habit these days.

She stirred, frowning as the light touched her eyes, and reached out. Encountering an empty bed beside her, she frowned and sat up, careless of her nudity as she looked around sharply. Her eyes encountered his and she relaxed, the frown becoming a smirk. Einherjar grinned at her from the doorway and moved to the bed.

"I didn't think you'd still be here." She told him as he sank down next to her, her expression disdainful. He chuckled, shaking his blond mane as he saw the truth in her dark eyes.

"But you wanted me to be." He teased, running a hand up her thigh.

"No." She shook her head, but didn't move away. "I told you to get going once you woke up." Her pupils dilated slightly as she watched the sunlight on the tanned skin of his chest.

"Well, I woke up just a few minutes ago. So I guess it's time to go." He started to roll away, his hand sliding from her olive skin as his ears picked up the slight intake of her breath.

"Yeah. Guess it is." She told his back, biting her lip as, apparently unconcerned, he reached for his eufiber pants and pulled them on. Her features were carefully impassive when he looked round at her, but the blue-eyed giant merely smiled and pulled on his shirt before sitting on the bed once more and leaning towards her. Stephanie leaned away.

"I don't do goodbye kisses." She told him curtly. He nodded aquiescence, and she relaxed as he stood up again.

"Au revoir." Einherjar said over one shoulder as he went towards the balcony. He slid the door open and stepped out into the sunlight.

"Wait." She called from the bed. He looked back at her. "How do I get in touch with you? In case I want to hire you." She seemed professional, all business. Ein shrugged.

"Through DeVries." He replied blandly, trying not to smile at the frustrated frown on her face. Two can play, and it's fun for all...

"That's not always practical for me, going through a third party." She told him with aplomb. "Don't you have a direct line?" She was taken aback by his amused grin.

"Sure. My card is under your pillow." He turned away again. "You're welcome, for that as well as the great sex."

"Under my..." Then the second line he uttered hit her. "You arrogant bast-" But he was already gone, soaring off into the sky.

For an instant, she considered following him. For an instant she wanted to shout something, anything, to get the last word in. For an instant, she pondered having him arrested.

Stephanie Severance, known as La Perra del Sangre to the Havana underworld, sank back into the soft bed and laughed quietly. She normally didn't spend more than a moment thinking of her assorted bedmates, not to mention spending more than a couple of hours in bed with them, but Einherjar was a fun sparring partner.

Besides, it had been great sex.

[Eingar]

The wind blew hard, gusting powdery snow into a fast-driving cloud of white that could clog engines and freeze a man's hands to his gun. Winter had come to northern Kashmir, and that weather, combined with the high altitudes, meant that the fighting between the various factions died down, at least along this part of the border, where the three nation-claimed territories intersected. Air defense radar networks bristled on all three sides: Chinese, Indian and Pakistani, and current technology was more than up to the task of picking up anything larger than a bird trying to fly across the lines. The Siachen glacier was the only land route across the various borders, and was considered to be impassable by conventional forces.

Not for the first time, the Nova Age made mockery of human consideration. Up one side of the slow-moving river of ice a solitary figure climbed with sure hands, not pausing to set ropes or pitons, but rather thrusting his fingers into the hard frozen surface when no better handholds presented themselves.

Fuck me. It's freezing! Einherjar wasn't comforted by the fact that he, as a nova, could endure temperature extremes that would kill a normal man. He didn't find solace in the knowledge that his eufiber was keeping the worst of the cold from his body. About the only fact he did like was that he was getting paid, and paid well, to knock out a Chinese listening post on the other side of the glacier. His employers wanted a blind spot in the Chinese air defense net. Why? He didn't know and didn't much care. The three main factions had been fighting over this misbegotten strip of land since before N-Day, and would probably keep fighting over it for the next umpteen years.

Of course, now that the U.N. and Utopia were involved, there was a 'No Nova' zone smack dab through the middle of Kashmir. If an Elite crossed that line, the forces of Truth and Beauty would land feet first on the offenders. Or some shit like that. Ein grunted under his breath as he dug his fingers into the glacier again, making another handhold before pulling himself up. All that Utopia was accomplishing in their peace-keeping effort today was to make him slog across no-mans land rather than fly. Promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. The old line of poetry came to him as he breasted the cliff face and slowly stood atop the glacier. Cramponed boots dug in and Einherjar trotted through the storm, his winter camo-patterned clothing making him no more than a pale grey ghost in the hazy swirls of snow.

The winds buffeted him, trying to push him from side to side, but he jogged on relentlessly. A large pack on his back contained explosive charges, food, and a few emergency toys from the DeVries locker. It weighed about 80lbs, but to the Elite it might as well have weighed nothing as he leapt over a crevasse in the ice, landing easily on the other side. Checking his GPS/compass watch, Ein made a course correction and carried on. A grin split his face, even as ice encrusted in his hair and beard and his teeth chattered. After a week of R&R, it was good to be back in the game. He sped up, paying close attention to the 'ground' ahead of him.

It took him two hours to cross the glacier, two hours of painstaking care and resisting the urge to simply fly over a couple of larger crevasses, but as the weak sunlight illuminated the mountainscape before him, Einherjar stood on the northern edge and looked across a network of gorges at the Chinese air defense base. Drawing his field glasses from a warm pouch in his 'fiber, the blond Elite crouched down and examined the objective.

The base itself was a semi-permanent structure: pre-fabricated buildings thrown together and surrounded by two fifteen-foot electric fences. Guard towers were spaced every fifty feet and men with dogs walked the ten-foot wide gap between the inner and outer fence. Despite rumors that the base was considered to be a punishment detail amongst the Chinese forces, the level of readiness was deemed to be high. In addition to which, Ein's employers had told him that the strategic location certainly merited nova defenders. He briefly narrowed his eyes through the lenses of his binoculars as though he could spot the novas from here, then shrugged and swept the glasses over the surrounding area, looking for the SAM sites.

Sure enough, he spotted four large installations on the surrounding hilltops, each one about five miles from the objective. A standard 'clover leaf' pattern. Cables would have been laid from the main base to each missile battery, making them semi-automated. A platoon of Chinese troops would also be at each site to provide maintainence, security, and if necessary independant action, though the radars at each site would not be as powerful as the one at the main base, which would also be linked via satellite to other bases along the border. All in all, a standard setup.

Einherjar stood and stretched before returning the binoculars to their pocket, then began his descent. He would use the day to find a place to lay low, prepare and plan, and strike tonight. His fingers bit into the ice, stronger than any piton as he lowered himself down the cliff. He resisted the urge to whistle as he went, relishing how alive he felt right now.

With a job like this, who the hell needs R&R?