On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

I just wish I knew what was going on here. That fat swine is surely our target, all the intel we gathered and the data points towards him. So just who is this Akio guy? Aliyah reached for her glass, trying to focus her thoughts. Her body felt listless, a nagging ache in her skull. Fucking gas or whatever. I feel vile. Even alcohol isn’t helping…

Akio took a sip of his whiskey in front of her. Her sharp gaze that was focused on the fat sack of shit that was the cause of all her hardships picked up a sneer that momentarily crossed his face. At that moment Akio somehow tripped over his own feet, his elbow flashing towards her. What, so fast? An attack…? She tried to react but before she could the glass was struck from her hand, shattering on the expensive marble floor, spilling amber liquid everywhere.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I’ve been feeling weak for a while, my legs just went from under me.” He apologised, meeting her eyes, but his gaze was trying to convey something. You are spouting bullshit. You don’t look affected by the gas to me. Oh, and don’t think I didn’t see you checking out my cleavage then too… god, do men ever think of anything else?

Forcing herself to stay in character, she forced a smile. “Oh, don’t worry about it. Luckily you didn’t get it on my dress.”

“Yeah, it might be my medical condition acting up I’m afraid. I have Aether depletion. It’s very rare.” His eyes had flickered to the fat turd, it was subtle but he couldn’t fool her senses. He is probing him. He’s said several strange things, trying to feel out my target. Just who is this guy, and more importantly, who does he work for? He speaks flawless English so he could be one of ours, but this mission was passed our way. Did someone fuck up in the planning stages?

“Let me get you another glass, we shouldn’t ruin this toast.” The ball of lard said unctuously. Nah, I think I’ll pass…

“No, I think I’ve had enough actually. I’ll be carrying a lot of money back to my hotel, I’d best keep a clear head.” As she finished a hint of anger was seen in his eyes. Yeah, the drinks must be spiked and that guy noticed. Probably why he is now taking really small sips…

“That’s a good point.” The slug agreed, smiling falsely. “I should have thought of that, sorry. But I do hate the thought of a young woman such as yourself taking such a heavy bag home alone. Las Vegas is pretty safe, but if something happened to you… why I doubt I could forgive myself.” He turned to Akio as well. “As for you. That’s an awful lot of money. Feel free to leave it here and I’ll have it ferried to your hotel tomorrow.”

“Oh, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. Buck has already sent round someone to pick me up.” Akio lied. “I’ll be fine.”

Yeah, he’s definitely suspicious of the worm. Ugh, god I wish I was in a bar, drinking and looking at beautiful girls. Men are such… “Yeah, my brother is waiting for me. He’s a big guy, he’ll deter any muggers. So I’m good too.”

“Oh. Well that is a shame. Anyway, if I could prevail on you just a bit longer…” as he stalled, Akio tensed, and Aliyah also noticed the movements of the security change. Fuck. Looks like it’s time. My plan to infiltrate went way better than I could have imagined, but this Akio is a rogue element…

Tapping on her earpiece she sent the signal for operation start, and suddenly noise and chaos could be heard outside. Suddenly the sealed door burst open, and a security guard rushed in, panting. “Sorry boss, some fights have broken out on the floor. They’ve accused us of cheating. We could use more security to damp it down.”

“Fuck, now of all times.” The tub of shit scowled. Gesturing, he sent four of his guards out with him. As the door shut and the bolts within engaged, the remaining four guards were approaching slowly, trying to look natural.

“Well, this didn’t go as I wanted. You…” he glared at Akio. “You are responsible for foiling the dealer, aren’t you? Still, you were no match for me, here in my own castle. And you were overconfident. There’s a powerful soporific in that drink, you should already be getting dizzy. If you’d just lost like you were supposed to then I wouldn’t have to do this. I need money, as much of it as I can get, and I’ll do whatever it takes.” Towards the end he was raving, spittle flying from his mouth. Ugh, he’s third rate, blabbing his crimes like an idiot. Has he forgot I’m here? Oh well, if he’s this talkative now, we should get plenty of info from him later. Tapping the earpiece again she signalled for the next stage of the plan. Suddenly the lights and power went out, plunging everything into darkness. Aliyah moved, remembering where the guards and the fat bastard were from memory. Dropping behind the bar she hid herself from view.

The emergency lights then flickered back on to see that Akio had moved towards the back door during the power cut. Still, the four security guards had moved his way, surrounding him, two with guns, the other two producing long-handled metal batons.

“It’s such a shame. You are going to be found dead in an alleyway, your money gone. Las Vegas is pretty safe, yes, but… besides, I heard you talking to that Buck Kelly. There is no car. You think I’m easy to fool, here in my castle? I don’t need to be near you to hear you!”

“Yvoo von’t get avay vith ‘is.” Akio slurred, unsteady on his feet, the massive weight of the heavy bags of money he was carrying weighing him down.

“Oh, so the drugs are kicking in. About time. All right then lads, a bonus to the one that retrieves my money! Try and make it look like a robbery gone wrong, then dump the body in the back alleys.”

Fuck fuckety fuck fuck. This is getting serious. Still, stage two of the plan went well, so… reaching under her dress she withdrew the ceramic knife that was taped to her skin. It had a special handle that rejected fingerprints and was untraceable, a true mercenaries’ weapon. Sorry, private military contractors’’ weapon… Trey is anal about that. Not all he’s anal about, in fact… ugh, not time for off-colour humour. That idiot is going to get killed. I’d like to help, but the mission comes first…

“Don’t think badly of me, I’m only doing my job…” one of the burly men stepped forwards, reaching for the Japanese man, when he suddenly shook off his supposed poisoning and spun forwards, his knee sinking directly into the gut of the guard. As the guard folded, releasing his baton, Akio twisted rapidly, a bag of cash crashing into his assailants’ skull, knocking him out. He then raced at the second, moving like a panther, fast and lean. His elbow shattered his nose, and with a squeal the stunned guard staggered, fainting. A third raised his gun and fired but Akio had already left his sight, the bullet pinging off the floor.

So fast. He must be a professional for sure. Is that… looks like Muay Thai, mixed with… he engaged with the third hired guard, keeping him between the last one with a pistol. He grabbed his arm, twisting the baton free then threw him over his shoulder at the gunman, who stepped back, unable to get a clean shot… some sort of Easternmartial arts. They usually aren’t much good, but I’ve heard all their operatives have to know one for cultural reasons. What a crock of shit. Still, he’s good… oh fuck, he’s got my attention. Besides, if he was with that real cutie I saw earlier, I don’t want her to cry. Beauties should smile…

Her knife flew through the air, plunging into the shoulder of the last man standing. As he let out a yell of pain, the blade lodging in bone, the man stamped on the head of the guard he had thrown savagely, knocking him out, before delivering a series of rapid blows to the guard she had assisted him with, dropping him with the sound of breaking bone.

“You… you scum!” the fat slime that owned the casino gibbered. “How dare you! You think you can get away with this, in my castle, my domain? I am chosen, one of those who will rule everything, and you … you dare to get in my way!”

The guy has lost it. Still, it only firms up he’s our target. Come on Trey, I’m waiting…

“You know, I think I can.” Akio pulled out his phone. “I’ve been recording everything since I entered this VIP area. Plus I have proof of the cheating outside. I can’t prove your misfortune field, but even so, I have enough. You freely threatened to murder me for money. On that note, I’m leaving. If you let me and the girl go, I’ll consider this a tie, since I did make a decent profit. You’ll be taking the cash Emilio won too, won’t you? Being too greedy is poison, be happy with what you have.”

Misfortune field? They were hinting about that earlier. Is it something to do with the tiredness that is affecting everyone? Although fat bastard and his staff seem unaffected. Shit, I need more information…

I briefly considered taking in Akio again, but if he was a foreign agent, Japanese special forces or something, that would be off-mission. Getting foreign powers involved would end badly… after all, us contractors were employed for discretion, technically extra-legal actions that went against the US Constitution, that were still necessary for national security. That came with freedoms, but also meant we had no backup if shit went south.

“You bastard, I’m going to show you what it means to… urgh!” I leapt over the bar, thrusting my knee into the small of his back and looping the elegant necklace garotte I wore around my neck around his. Having a weapon disguised as fashion always catches them by surprise.

“Gah… let… me… go… bitch…” he gasped as the links of the chains pulled into his corpulent neck. He flailed his disgusting arms at me, scattering me with sweat. As he struggled, even with my knee in his back, which should have denied him any leverage, he was surprisingly powerful and tenacious. How is this slug so strong? And now I really need a bath. Man-sweat is disgusting.

“Uh, I don’t suggest killing him…” Akio seemed a bit hesitant. “After all, a lot of people knew we were here. I don’t fancy ending up in prison on murder charges. I hear US prisons really aren’t nice…”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m a professional, like you. Still, you’ve hurt those guys worse than I’m crushing this blob of shit.”

At that the oily maggot squealed out some choked protests, so I pressed my knee harder in retaliation.

“Well, in that case…” he went over to the emergency exit. The electronic locks had been disengaged by our stage-two cutting of the power supply earlier, but it was still chained shut. Akio looked at it for a moment, then seemed to twist the chain in his hands, and with a squealing of metal the thick links split apart, just enough for him to slip it through the bolts. “.. I’ll see you later maybe, miss Aliyah. Farewell. I’m never coming back to this place though…”

“Sure. By the way…” I got in one dig before he left, trying to rattle him. “Give my regards to the blonde cutie you were with earlier today. She’s just my type.”

“Ahh, sure… okay. Will do. Don’t kill him, okay! Just be satisfied with your winnings.” With that warning repeated he darted out into the alleyway, heavy bags of cash on his shoulders.

As I watched him go, my arms flexing as I choked the swine, who was still squealing and thrashing, long after he should have fallen unconscious, my earpiece pulsed. That was the signal. Backing up to the door to the main casino, I turned the key and unlocked the remaining bolts our little power-cutting stunt hadn’t dealt with. As the doors creaked open Trey and a couple of our burlier guys slid in, shutting the doors behind us.

“What the hell is going on, sis?” Trey asked, seeing me strangling the jerk and four unconscious and wounded guys over by the now-open exit.

“Long story.” I replied. “But first do you mind slugging our target here? He’s annoyingly tenacious, who would have thought a corpulent shit was this tough?”

“Sure. You two, go out back and pull some of the vans round. We’ll load them in and take them away. They might know something.” Trey stepped up and slammed the fat weasel with a couple of pinpoint strikes to key points of his body, and he finally fainted, allowing me to let go. My arms were trembling from the effort of choking him.

“So, now that the situation is contained, what happened here?” he asked, surveying the chaos.

“First tell me everything is going to plan?” I retorted. Going behind the bar I helped myself to an opened bottle of whiskey and took a swig. That’s better. Fuck I feel like shit. I hate this place and this shitty job. Still, on the home stretch now…

“You have to have more faith in us, Aliyah. To be honest our part was easy, you had to infiltrate and make an opportunity. I’ve no idea how you pulled it off to be honest, I was expecting a hot extraction. Guess I shouldn’t underestimate you, sis. Anyway yeah, our guys are being thrown out by their security as we speak, tying them up, and we cut the main power circuit. The backup generators fired, but without a reset the security systems and cameras are down. We should get out clean.”

“Good.” Taking another swig she retrieved her holdall of money, which she tossed to Trey. As he unzipped it, surprised, she smiled. “I got third place. Over a million and a half in there. Not bad eh?”

“Oh shit Aliyah, not bad at all! That money was a sunk cost for the mission. Shit, drinks are on you…” as we talked more of our people had entered through the back door, dragging off the guards. We locked the door to the main casino and jammed it, rendering it inoperable, before bailing out of the back and boarding the van. As the doors slammed shut and we drove off, our target and his lackeys secured, I turned to Trey once more.

“Things got pretty complicated in there. I think other agencies are sniffing around, probably foreign. There was this Japanese guy, pretty sharp, took down those idiots over there.” She jerked her head at the fallen security, who were now tied up, thick masking tape used to tie their hands and legs behind their backs and gag them. “Fast and strong. He’d give you a good fight. He seemed to know something we don’t too, I got some coded language, like Material, Aether, misfortune field…”

“Shit, that’s not good. You reckon he’s part of a team? If so, they might try and extract the target?”

“No, I don’t think he’ll go for that. When he fled the scene I felt he was giving the target to us. I find it frustrating, but we succeeded. Still, we could really use what he knows.” I feel we only know a fraction of the bigger picture. Sure, we are only the hands and feet of the government, but even so…

“So, what do we know about this guy?” Trey asked.

“I’ve got a name. it might be fake, but it was so unusual I doubt it. Akio Moonstone Oshiro. From Japan. I also got his hotel. Plus… I reckon I could get more, if we needed…” Kelly’s Rest. If he’s laying low he won’t be seen in the open, but … if he wanted to make contact with us…

As I pondered Trey asked if we should raid him at his hotel, shake him up a bit, but I shook my head. “No way. I’m not sure how true it is, but I heard he’s with his sister and some other girls, and they aren’t even old enough to drink. I know you wouldn’t be up for that. Shit, I’m not…”

“Yeah, I’m not down for collateral damage on kids. It’s not in our mission spec anyway. We got what we came for. We’ll pull out clean tonight.”

“Yeah, I’ll stay behind. Leave me one of the girls and I’ll follow my lead tomorrow. If I get any extra information, then all’s good. If not then I’ll count it as a reward for my hard work.”

“Sure, sounds good to me. You reckon you’ll have any luck?”

I remembered Akio as he left, warning me, seemingly genuine about not wanting me to get in trouble. “I don’t know, Trey. I don’t know. But…” I have a feeling our paths are going to cross again. And in this business, you always go with your gut, as those that don’t… well, they don’t live long, do they?