Child of Hades

21. Highs and lows (Leo)

After I had arrested Charon a lot of people had started treating me differently. It did not take long until I was mentioned in the news, reporters and officers of higher ranks reported my achievements. Of course, they gave some of the credit to my father. It was just what people wanted to hear. 

Not too long after this, my father called me himself. I got a cold feeling when I saw his hologram popping up on my screen. When I was younger I had told myself that all of this was just his weird way of loving his son. He called me because I was successful, not because I was his son. He said I might become something after all and that I should continue following the route I had taken. It was not a great compliment, and he did not apologize for the things he had said earlier. But it was something nice that he said to me, so I convinced myself to feel happy about it.

In the news, I had heard that he had remarried shortly after my mother passed. The wedding was aired as a public event, one of great importance. A new child was already on the way. It would take some pressure off me, to be honest. Even so, I did not like the idea of being replaced.

Apart from my father, other high ranking officers had also called me to congratulate me on my achievements. Charon's old club had been turned into a Lukrain embassy of sorts. I was quite certain that even without catching Lié, my career was unexpectedly already back on the right track. It was getting tiresome to wait around in the Jussum day after day. Even so, what happened between me and that elf, it was personal. I was not going to just let go of the biggest humiliation in my life. Making criminals pay for their crimes was still my main goal, but she would pay especially.

It was getting harder and harder to figure out what to do with all this free time on my hands.

I read a lot of ebooks, did a lot of practice simulations, and practiced fighting with my soldiers in real life, I worked out in the ship's gym and I spent some time talking to Brielle when I absolutely could not think of anything to do anymore. It was fun hanging out with the soldiers and enjoying simulations. Brielle, despite her many flaws, was the only person I could talk to about my mother whenever I missed her.

The deaths from our previous operations still came back to me in the form of nightmares in my sleep. But during the day, I was mostly fine. After my abduction, I had developed great skepticism towards the safety-systems of the ship, so I did not like to spend any time alone anymore.

Sharky had been inviting me to come party with him ever since our graduation. Waiting for Lié's ship had not been fruitful or interesting, so I finally decided to leave the Jussum to my second in command for one night. I went back to Lukra. I had missed the atmosphere on that planet. The air smelled familiar. Being back home, I felt like a completely different man. Sharky had invited me to come to the Golden Soldier Lounge. It was a nice establishment in the better part of the red light district. The district was dedicated to the Lukrain army and police force. Women with Lukrain values. Everything they did was in honor of the people that, like me, risked their lives for our people. The club was not too official though, so I expected drugs to be commonplace. The right kind of resort for me.

Sharky was already quite wasted when I arrived, but I tried to catch up with a couple of shots. The next few hours I spend taking some Hibiscus and alcohol and reminiscing with Sharky about old times. The more Sharky drank, the more he started talking about the official operations that he had been part of during the past month. He graphically described several of the fallen soldiers, putting me in a rather awkward position. I had not come here to remember the fallen ones.

I was already quite wasted when I noticed a young man sitting at the bar. I noticed him because he reminded me of something. As I walked to him, I realized that he looked like that kid that I had arrested on Lié's ship.

"HEY, DO I KNOW YOU?", I asked, way too loudly.

The kid was spooked and got off his chair. Moments later I was sitting on the chair he had left from. Turning back to Sharky, I realized there was a crowd forming around him. I got off the chair and walked back to Sharky, pushing people out of the way rather violently. Sharky was shaking, white foam forming around his mouth. "Shit, HELP?!" I yelled.

My head was empty. "HELP!"

The people were staring. A bouncer made his way to us. Then we were on the street. Sharky felt cold.

"Get in", said a voice. I turned around to see the kid. I was not sure if I was hallucinating. Sharky had just thrown up. I knew I was not in a good area of this town, and it was very late. "Fly Me to the moon", I said as I hopped in, taking Sharky with me.