“Captain Ella Dorsh, 5th Reborn Division, reporting for duty, Sir.”
“Sit down captain. I have a new mission for your division.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Ella obeyed and took a seat in front of Colonel Sean Leash.
“I’ve heard great things about you in these years, captain, especially how you coordinated your squad during the last operation. Your résumé is impressive, your courage and determination brought outstanding results,” Colonel Leash smoothed his brown moustache and put his hands on the table. “That’s why I chose you and your team to take care of this matter.”
“I thank you on behalf of my men, Sir.”
Colonel Leash smiled, but his face turned serious when he felt the weight of her stare and realized that the men she was talking about… were no men at all.
“War is upon us. We are not able to block the forces of the underground any longer, they found other ways to conquer the world and we have to face them on our own field. Your division will be lifted from the underground patrol and set on a new task: chase and terminate the Elvish explorers on our territory. They are coming out in small groups to install cameras and other devices to spy our movements and prepare the invasion. They must be stopped.”
Ella took a deep breath: the colonel’s office smelled of scotch and cigars. War was nearer than she had thought, if her superior needed to drown his fears before meeting his best captain.
“Chase and terminate. No problem, Sir.”
“Take their leaders under your custody, kill the rest. Follow them in the underground if necessary, get rid of every single one of them.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Colonel Leash opened the top drawer, took a tiny metal box and put it on the table.
“This contains the orders and the necessary information for you and your…” the colonel coughed, “soldiers.”
He wanted to say men, but the word just felt wrong and his brain failed to translate his thoughts into action. The project had been going on for almost thirty years now, but the colonel still wasn’t used to that idea. He had never even wanted any part in that, but orders were orders and safety and duty always had to come first.
Ella grabbed the container and opened it: nineteen white pills and a black one looked at her from the inside. She took the black pill, swallowed it, sealed the lid and put it in the bag hanging from her belt. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, while her body transformed the information contained in the pill into readable data. When she felt a tingle in her fingertips she knew that everything was ready. Ella pushed a luminous spot on the back of her left wrist and a picture filled the air between her and Colonel Leash: dark elf, male, lilac skin, pale rosy hair and amber eyes. Nothing different from what she saw every day, nothing too far from her own reflection.
“We still don’t know his name but he’s the one who passed our surveillance last night and our sources tell us that he’s a leader, a captain or something. We believe he’s not alone and he’s bearing the Mighty Tree emblem on his uniform, so he’s from this area. This picture was taken in Richbarrow at 11.24pm, he had all night to operate and God knows where he’s hiding now.”
“I will find him and bring him back to you, Sir.”
Colonel Leash stood up and Ella snapped to attention.
“Very well Captain Dorsh. You are dismissed.”
Ella bowed and left the office. She walked with long strides to the elevator and took it until the ground floor. The formal uniform was too tight and it didn’t even support half of her fighting gear. She had taken only her double bladed laser and steel saber; she felt naked without the daggers on her back and the guns pushing against her thighs. The bobby pins scratched her head, the collar pinched her neck and the jacket didn’t allow quick movements. Why couldn’t the colonel just send her the new orders? She had no need of meeting a man who obviously felt uncomfortable in her presence. Ella and the others like her had proven their loyalty countless times, they were fluent in at least three human languages and they truly hated the enemy. She enjoyed the smell of fear when people looked at her, but not in her superiors. How could she respect somebody trying to handle a war, when they couldn’t even command their troops without feeling uneasy?
The sliding doors opened, Ella crossed the hall and finally got out of the building. A black SUV with dark windows was expecting her and she couldn’t wait to get in and return to the base. The soldier at the wheel had started the engine when she was still walking in the atrium.
“That was fast Cap’, what…”
“Shut up and drive.”
Ella slammed the door shut and the soldier pushed the accelerator.
“He did it again, didn’t he?”
“Yes. I mean, he’s not truly afraid but it’s like he’s on the edge of a damn cliff and the office…” Ella took off the jacket, loosened the tie and opened the first three buttons of the shirt, “smelled bad, alcohol and cigars. Come on. Is that the way to receive someone? Especially if you know that this particular someone has got highly developed senses?”
“I guess not.”
“You guess? Fuck, I thought you were brighter!”
The skyscrapers surrounded the SUV like sentries made of glass and crowds of people moved in a hurry on the sidewalks. Ross stopped at a red light and glanced at her: Ella’s eyes were glowing with rage as her hair fell down on her shoulders, rose gold petals against the black uniform.
“No, that’s not the way, Cap’.”
“Damn right it’s not.”
Ella looked stunning with something different from the ordinary uniform, her hair down and most of anything else… an open shirt showing her cleavage, but Alvin Ross was smarter than that. He had always tried to get a sneak peek of her body in the common showers and he was now fast enough not to get caught obsessing about his captain. He thought he deserved a medal for that, he’d been spying on her for years now, but he had to admit that being her best friend had put him in a privileged position.
“So what’s the next mission?” he asked.
“I’ll give you the pill when we get to the base, anyway, long story short: we’re out of the patrolling crap, we go solo to chase some trespassers.”
“Cool, only us?”
“Yep. We’re the best.”
“And fuck the rest?”
“You already fucked half of the female population of the base, Ross. You should get some sleep sometimes.”
“But the other half is still waiting for my approval, I’m behind with the application forms.”
“Seriously?” Ella snorted.
“Maybe it’s time for you to do the same. The base is big, you know? You can be quite the charm when you want to.”
“Yeah and you’d be the first of the line, right?”
“I’m always there for you, Ella.”
“I’m a fighter, I’m responsible for my team, I don’t have time for that.”
“Sure, Cap’, you take good care of us, but some of us could also take good care of you…”
“I hate you.”
“Yeah, keep saying that until you believe it, ok?”
“Or I can just shoot you.”
“While I’m driving?”
“Or in your sleep…”
“Then you’ll have to follow the clothes on the floor to find me!”
“Gross, Ross! Gross!”
Ross winked and smiled so big, that Ella had to laugh and forget her meeting with Colonel Leash. It had gone pretty well after all; they were entrusting her group with a different assignment that required more attention than simple patrolling. They had been stuck there for almost two years already and it was so boring, that Ella had turned it into a game to keep her men focused and competitive. Ross, of course, was ranking second after her and everybody was trying to at least see the enemies before either one of them. Day after day, night after night, her group or another had to search the tunnels leading to the Underkingdom, where the dark elves lived and conspired against humans. They had managed
to survive and now their realm was not enough anymore. Dark elves wanted to conquer the Earth and destroy the human race, take control over everything and rule. Humans were doing their best to keep them at bay in the underground. Ella and the other soldiers closed ways and passages as deep as they could and killed as many as possible. Ella didn’t miss the light of the sun, it was too strong for her anyway, but she was feeling like her job down there was useless. Lately she was leading her squad so deep into the tunnels, that she was sure she had to find evidence of the elves preparing to storm out in the outside world, but there was nothing; nothing but disappointment. Her idea was that the dark elves were keeping them busy in certain areas only as a diversion. She had shared her vision with Colonel Leash receiving only silence in return, because there had been no signs of other activities… until now.
While Ella was pursuing shadows and pebbles in the dark, the enemy had managed to get out somewhere else and she was more than ready to face any danger. Every elf she slaughtered was a human she helped to live; it was the least she could do after all the good humans had done for her. This time, the possible presence of civilians on the field was the only downside of the operation; Ella wasn’t exactly a people person but she had Ross for that. Military training had made a fighter out of the skinny kid found in the night and Ella had failed to acquire the typical human warmth and sympathy, with rare exceptions. Her hosting family had loved her truly, but she had felt relieved when they had sent her to the base and the training had begun.
Trespassers; a new sign of the upcoming war.
It was a new challenge. Ella tried to remember the face of her target but he didn’t have anything peculiar besides the emblem of the Mighty Tree. That tree had fascinated her since she could remember and she had even dreamt of touching it. The Mighty Tree was made of black marble encrusted with silvery leaves and golden fruits and the dark elves kept it hidden in the heart of the Underkingdom. The strange thing was that Ella’s dreams felt so real that sometimes, when she woke up, she thought she was not dreaming but remembering. The doctors at the base had told her that it was possible, since she was already five years old when humans had found her wandering in the snow.
She didn’t remember much of that period. Places, faces and voices of other elves were a pointless blur, but today she was still able to speak the Elvish tongue with her companions and she wasn’t afraid of gloomy galleries. That little much that she hadn’t forgotten kept her vigilant: elves were no worms in the ground. The tunnels were only passageways, the elves had cities and palaces, the Underkingdom was rich and prosperous, or at least it had been in the past. Men were trying to deny it, but it was far from being a well-kept secret. Or maybe it just wasn’t like that anymore; Ella had never been close enough to see for herself. The teachers at the base had told her that the underground was poor now, for this reason dark elves needed to conquer the rest of the world.
Governments didn’t want to scare their people, so they had led them to think that elves were savages covered with dirt, but the truth was coming out fast. The myth of men defeating elves with the stroke of an axe wasn’t enough to keep the masses quiet. Dark elves were ready to come back and people were not as blind as to miss the hints of their presence. Footprints, figures moving in the dark, bright eyes set upon the world of men, whispers and flashes in the night, people vanishing and dead bodies.
“What’s that?” Ross asked pulling over.
He pointed at something on the other side of the road, there were a stage and a mass holding flags, banners and posters; the biggest one said: death to the invaders. Some jeeps and vans were parked next to the stage and sentries guarded the parking lot.
“Looks like a recruiting campaign,” Ella said.
“A bit too late now.”
“Bad timing is a bitch and men love her very much.”
“I always appreciate a woman able to speak like a true lady.”
“That’s why none of your true ladies is even close to getting a promotion.”
“Touché…”
Ella buttoned her shirt back, secured the tie and put on a pair of mirrored sunglasses.
“Let’s take a look,” she said.
Ella and Ross got off the SUV and walked toward the stage. A man was holding a microphone and talking while the multitude screamed and applauded.
“War is coming, my people! We cannot ignore it any longer. Dark elves are about to swarm out of the underground to murder us all! They want what’s ours and they want retribution for the past. It is said that history repeats itself and it is our duty to make this happen. The brave people of the past fought against these devious creatures and trapped them in the underground… where they belong! They have to stay there; we cannot allow their presence on our territory!”
Ella and Ross didn’t pass unnoticed and a sentinel approached them as soon as they crossed the road, before the multitude could realize that two devious creatures were wandering on their territory.
“It’s not the best moment for a public appearance,” he stated.
“Captain. Captain Ella Dorsh, Head of the 5th Reborn Division, Specialized Assault for Ground and Underground Operations and Lieutenant Alvin Ross.”
The man stepped back and snapped to attention, her name was no breaking news when humans talked about reborns.
“It’s an honor meeting you in person, Captain Dorsh. I am Private…”
“What’s going on here?”
Ross covered a smile faking a cough; Ella’s habit of cutting off people while they were still talking speeded up any process.
“Recruiting;” he answered, “the speech is almost over, he’s about to talk about you from the Reborn Divisions. People are upset and, when they sign up, they have to know that trusting darkness is part of the bargain.”
Ella smiled, lowered her lenses and moved a step closer to the private.
“And why do you trust darkness?” she hissed.
Ella’s eyes made him shiver: the light of the sun hit their surface and turned the amber irises in a circle of sparkling gold. She smelled his fear under the aftershave and grinned. So much for trusting darkness, she thought.
“Because you are a reborn, Captain Dorsh. We saved you and now you save us from your own kind. I… we trust you because you can help us discover the enemies’ weakest points faster, you speak their language, know how they think…”
“Enough, private. Good luck with the recruiting, we do need fresh men indeed.”
Until they die like rats in the galleries and we need others again, she wanted to add.
“Thank you, Captain Dorsh.”
Ella pushed her sunglasses back, turned around and walked to the SUV: hearing a speech about the importance of trusting darkness wasn’t part of her agenda.
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