Fracture of Illusion: Introduction

The man checked the pulse. He had to be sure. This was not a moment to make a mistake. He felt empty inside, thinking back on how many good people, friends had died because of this one man. There was no satisfaction. There couldn’t be. He knew that in another few years, there would be another, and this madness would begin all over again. The woman with him placed her hand on his shoulder ‘There’s nothing more to do here Tom’ She said ‘Let him rot where he lies’. ‘What about Rebecca and Simon?’ He asked, tears in his eyes.. ‘I’m sorry. There’s no trace of them.’ ‘There must have been another way. I should have found another way’ He turned to face her. Although he had known her for over twenty years, he had never needed her more than this moment. ‘I sent them here, I used them Julia. I knew that they never stood a chance against him. All they were was a distraction, a decoy. Is that what they died for? Is that what they were worth?’ The woman looked him straight in the eyes. ‘They knew what they were doing, what you were asking of them. They came here and fought without question. They gave their lives to protect the innocent. It’s up to us and the Temple to honour them and what they have done today.’ Tom nodded ‘You’re right, as always. I’m just sick of the death, the violence. But I know it’s never going to stop. There’ll be a time when we are here or some place like this again, and then who knows how many people will die the next time. Where do we go from here?’ ‘We do what we do’ She said ‘ We go, bury our dead, and prepare for the next time’
The two walked away, leaving the body of the man there, in a blackened pit. It was the only thing intact in a hundred metre radius. At the edge of the circle of scorched earth they both turned and looked back. Tom shook his head. To believe it had taken a direct hit from a cruise missile to kill the Fallen One this time. With each encounter it was getting stronger. He could remember giving the order to the two Skilled, Rebecca and Simon, to keep him occupied, keep him in this one place long enough for the missile. It would take a long time for he felt even close to better about it, and he doubted he would ever be comfortable with it. At least the location was remote. An old abandoned village in the Canadian wilderness, about a hundred miles away from the nearest settlement. He smiled bitterly. No one would know what had happened here, or the danger the world had faced.
The snow whirled around them both as a chopper hovered lower, moving into land. ‘Is the target terminated?’ Shouted one of the men in the helicopter down to Tom and Julia. ‘Yes’ shouted back Julia, struggling to be heard above the sound of the chopper and the wind swirling around them ‘He’s intact, but quite dead.’ ‘Thank God’, said the man in the chopper. ‘No’ said Tom, as he climbed aboard. ‘Thank the two Skilled who aren’t going to be coming back with us.’