Day 124 - Nine Dies

 Nine Dies

 Matthew Ryan Fischer

 

Seven opened his apartment door to find Nine bleeding out in the hallway. There were streaks of blood leading back to the stairs, and bloody hand prints smeared across the wall where Nine had tried to support himself. His clothes were ripped and shredded and Nine had been stabbed with a knife multiple times. Seven tried to pick him up, but Nine’s body was limp and heavy and he couldn’t do anything to assist, so eventually Seven just dragged him inside his apartment.

Nine could barely breathe, let alone talk or give answers as to what had happened. Seven tried to put pressure on the wounds with one hand, while pulling out his cell with his other. Nine tried to reach Seven’s hand and mumbled something, but Seven wasn’t listening. Then the item fell from his hand and hit the floor – a USB drive.

Nine coughed and was able to say, “…files on each of us…” before succumbing to a coughing fit.

Seven stared at the drive, aware that every second wasted was one second closer to killing Nine. But Nine was likely already gone, and what would remain was the mystery of why.

 

 

Soon, Three made his way across the street and entered Seven’s apartment building. He stopped to examine the trail of blood leading up the steps. Three took out his phone and made a call.

Inside, Nine lay on the bathroom floor. Seven had drug him there and attempted some sort of amateur first aid, using towels and any bandages he could find. The towels were soaked red and Seven had to check every few minutes to make sure Nine was breathing. He had called Three instead of the bosses. A breach in protocol perhaps, but these seemed like special circumstances.

Three made his way up the stairs, when the door opened and Seven peered out.

“Someone might see.”

“Get inside. I didn’t have time to clean yet.”

Three looked at Nine before doing anything. Seven had tried to sew up some of the wounds with a needle and thread. It was a poor attempt at stitches. It didn’t seem to be working.

“What are you doing? Help.”

“Is he even breathing?”

“I did what I could.”

“You couldn’t have done much less.”

“Are you going to help or not?”

“Why bother? He’s dead.”

“He’s one of us. He is not going to die. Not here. A medic is on his way. I need you to get to work.”

Three shrugged, opened his bag and pulled out an IV drip.

“This is saline…”

“Just hook him up. The medic will be here.”

Nine looked bad, perhaps in a coma already. Three gave Seven one last look, then turned and got to work.

“You call this in?”

Seven was silent.

“Seven, you have to call this in.”

“Look at him – I don’t know who targeted him or who we can trust.”

“Call it in. Worry about the rest later. You called me. You called a medic. They’re going to know. Soon. You’ve already broken protocol. If you call it in now, they might forgive you. But if he dies here and you didn’t?”

“I made a decision.”

“Why?”

Seven thought about the USB drive. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he couldn’t trust anyone with that. Not yet. He couldn’t tell Three.

“I panicked. I made a mistake.”

“Then fix it. And call the bosses.”

 

 

Later, the medics prepared to move Nine’s body. A cleaning crew had arrived and was taking care of the halls. Seven sat in his living room with Three, waiting on supervision to arrive.

“You want to tell me what’s really going on? What was Nine doing here?”

Seven shrugged. “I don’t know. I found him in the hall. I have no idea why he came to me.”

Ten arrived and the room fell silent. Where The Nine worked to protect the families and keep the peace, Ten was an enforcer with permission to enact any punishment he saw fit. He policed The Nine and was their judge, jury, and executioner. Seven didn’t like the way he was looking around the room.

“Perhaps if you had called this in sooner, Nine could have been saved.”

“I–”

“Plenty of time for excuses later. Clean yourself up. The Chairmen will want a full report. But first, walk me through it, step by step.”

 

 

A day later, Gideon met Seven in private.

“I know you tried.”

“Thank you, sir. But I still feel like a failure.”

“Nonsense. There’s still the who and the why to be solved. Who did this to my family?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then you’ll have to find out.”

“What about Ten?”

“The organization trusts Ten. But you were there. He came to you for a reason. You know more than anyone else. This isn’t about protocol or obeying the system. This was a direct attack on the families, my family. On one of your fellow Ghosts. This was bold and brazen and who knows who the next target will be. There could be enemies everywhere. We can't wait for one man to do his job. We all must make sure it is done. Help my family get the answers. Help me.”

Seven bowed and nodded.

“Of course, sir. I’ll do what I can.”

“Good man. I’ll make sure the families don’t interfere with you. Now get me answers.”

Seven nodded, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to. It seemed like an impossible task, but if an enemy was attacking the families, he had to try.