Who's hunting Who? Chapter 44. (Patreon)

Well here we are. A slow chapter, expect the action to pick up for the next one. For now, please enjoy.

I hated teaching. The more I lived, the more I hated it. I mainly hated it because the people I taught were unavoidably stupid. How did it even take someone five tries to learn to stake a log trap properly? It was a log trap, not a reinvention of the wheel!

"Look, you have to double bind it, two stakes, or it'll pull itself out from the weight. So here, and here."

Pointing out the correct spots again, seemed to do the trick and the moron went to work for a third time on this particular trap.

Which of course meant I needed to check on the guy next to him, to find out what he'd screwed up. Because of course, he'd also screwed something up.

"No, you damned idiot; if you set the rope that way, you'll trip yourself when you try to tighten it and set off your own trap. Then you'll be dead, and your own comrades will wonder why you were allowed to join the army in the first place. Can you even walk and chew gum at the same time?"

I fought down the sudden craving for gum. The odd craving that I seemed to be getting more often lately; I blamed having to deal with someone who looked like an actual kid.

It was a good thing that these guys couldn't understand English, come to think of it. Vivian was snickering, and without knowing exactly what I said, the private I was dressing down already looked at me as if he knew I punted puppies and punched children for fun.

If I knew, he'd no doubt be saying something, and then we'd have problems. He didn't want us to have problems - he thought he did, but he really didn't.

"You have the poetry of a drill sergeant," Vivian informed me.

"Makes sense, I learned from a few." I had things to hide, but my education wasn't one of those, and my teachers should be remembered. Especially her.

I wonder what she'd make of all this. She'd probably be laughing her ass off, if she could. If there was a heaven and hell, she surely was laughing from one of them. There wasn't, of course, no heaven could exist because no god could be this... yeah. So, it couldn't be possible, but it was a nice image anyway.

"We need more people educated by drill sergeants in the world," Vivian answered sagely.

I couldn't disagree. I wonder if Cat had been trained by one, in her day? I'd have to ask later.

The next group actually surprised me. The traps were adequate, and might actually work on a witch if one were nearby.

Well, another one were nearby. No one needed to know Grey and my little secret. The guy in charge of these didn't know any English, but they all knew the thumbs up, the universal symbol of a job well done. He didn't smile as I gave it; just nodded.

If he sighed when I turned away, I decided not to know; what I didn't know I couldn't waste breath over from an attitude standpoint.

This was my first group of the brave, stupid, and slightly insane today, and most were learning readily enough. I had no idea how the earlier groups I'd trained the last couple days were doing, but they were supposed to be training on their own right now, so that we had as many as possible to deal with the invasion. It always came down to matters of time in these things, often in more ways than one.

Only a matter of time before witches came, a matter of more time to train... a matter of time before the city and country would fall, as too many too strong witches swamped the defenses.

On it went, correcting the newbies and showing them once again how to hide both the traps and themselves. I was getting hungry by the time I got to the last line - which was fine, since I could stop for lunch.

These poor fools weren't getting out of the practice ground until dark signaled the end, since someone would undoubtedly put a foot wrong in the gloom and kill themselves.  But I didn't have to be here for all that, one of my slightly more experienced students would call it for them.

I turned to Vivian, and she turned to me at the same time, and nodded. "Let's go."

I looked around. "Seen Cat?"

Vivian shook her head and shrugged. "She was here not long ago, maybe ten minutes?"

Oh hell, that was not good. That was not good at all. I gave as hidden a glance to Grey as I could; he smiled and gave a thumbs up. So he was tracking her, and all was well.

Leaving Cat alone was something I had to balance; too much hovering might get me killed, but too little might kill others. Even if she'd been downright nice to people while I'd been watching.

It was weird, Cat had a reputation, but she hadn't killed a single person that I'd seen in the months I'd known her, only witches.

Witches weren't people; they were something else. Not even me. I wonder if Cat felt the same way?

Stupid thoughts. Thinking was stupid in general, and would only slow me down; it was the worst habit I'd picked up in recent months by far. It might even have dulled my edge - we would see. We would see soon if my hunch was correct.

"Alright, guess we can let her do her own thing, since she isnt technically a part of this."

"So, where do you want to go?" My current partner asked.

Why ask me that? "It's your city. I've only been here a few times."

The only places I knew to eat lunch had gone out of business for some reason or another.

"Excellent, leave it to me!" Vivian exclaimed, full of enthusiasm, before marching off.

Vivian and Cat would get along, I think. At the very least, she reminded me of some of Cat's minions, all enthusiasm and little sense.

Still, she seemed to know where she was going, and she had sense enough not to snag my arm and drag me, like certain others might. I wonder where the French woman is now - she was too tough and stupid to die, not with the Russian looking after her.

"Here."

Vivian walked into a smaller restaurant, but still a place that was clearly a restaurant. I could already see the pasta and other things you'd expect to see on offer before I even entered myself.

I didn't bother trying to read the name; there was no point. I would either eat here or not.

I would not be eating snails.

There were a number of military people here, and the waitress was already seating Vivian at a small table near the window. She turned to me with a forced smile that was beginning to slip... but then stepped aside and motioned to the chair.

She promptly handed me a menu after I sat, slapping it into my hand in a pretty clumsy attempt to make me fumble it. I was long since used to how the French were, however, and caught it without missing a beat.

"This place is very good. Can you order?"

If not for the uniform Vivian was sporting, I was sure they wouldn't even be seating me. I was supposed to get my own uniform eventually, but I wasn't in a hurry to wear it; putting on a french military uniform seemed like a betrayal in at least two ways, and maybe more. "I can, no problem."

The waitress came back with water, and Vivian ordered some french onion pasta. Not t be outdone, I ordered buckwheat crozets, which I was rather surprised a place like this even had. Usually those were not in the snootier places like this, and I mentioned as much to my eating companion.

Vivian gave me a look of disbelief in return. "This place, swanky? The only places more... down to earth, so to speak, than a place like this are the dives the health department shuts down weekly."

Yeah, my kind of place, where the food was cheap and the staff didn't look down their nose at you because they knew better.

What was that shudder for? A full body shudder, as if the girl was scared or something. What was that? Something about roaches....

"You shouldn't worry about roaches; they are everywhere, and they don't eat much anyway."

Hmm, now that was a look I'd seen before; pity mixed with disgust. Though, more disgust than pity, which was a little different.

"Hunters are usually poor."

It was a well known fact, though most of my problem was people pissed me off, and then I had to pay for whatever got broken as I taught them manners. Or, I'd have to pay for whatever the witch broke as people blamed it on me. I wasn't even alone in that; it was a well-known problem in my old circles. Hunters were always paid, but rich hunters just didn't exist.

"There is poor, and then there is poor," Vivian told me. "I thought you camped rough or stayed in dives as it made you harder to find."

She wasn't wrong. "That's true too. Most witches wouldn't be caught dead in some of the places hunters go. You'll find out yourself if you live long enough. Welcome to the Hunt, or near enough as makes no difference."

Vivian shuddered visibly. "I don't think I want to join anymore."

Interesting. "Did you really ever?"

"No, Vivian answered honestly. "I admire the hunt, but I wasn't ready for it. Was not 'cut out for it', as the saying goes. I knew that all along. I might have joined in administration if I'd been allowed, but...."

Yeah. Even our desk jockeys knew enough to be dangerous. Or had, before. Maybe if they'd all been full Hunt, the organization would have been able to hold a few years longer. Then again, put that way, it didn't really matter.

What was a few years in the face of the inevitable?

No, that was quitter talk, and I wasn't raised to be a quitter. Fight, fight, against the dying of the light, and something something... as my teacher used to say.

I couldn't stop, wouldn't stop, until I killed her. Only when she was dead at my feet could I rest and sleep among the bones of humanity.

Grey was looking at me. Well, more like giving me a look; because he heard that. He heard all my thoughts, right. Whatever, it wasn't like I could change how or what I thought of, after all. He would just have to get used to it.

I was careful not to let my eyes linger on my escort too long; Vivian knew enough of the signs, and I was sure she could put two and two together and come up with four, given enough.

Our food came, and I let Vivian do the thanking while I got on with things. Not even the wine placed next to me on the table would distract me... for long, that is.

"It's not going anywhere," Vivian said with some amusement.

"Another Hunt thing. Witches have some of the worst timing, and if you don't eat fast, sometimes you don't get to eat at all."

"Sounds tough. I imagine the British have quite the problem with that."

Right, of course she knew the old tea time joke; everyone knew that one. "Less than you'd think. They are usually pretty committed."

All the Hunters I knew from jolly old England weren't all that jolly, and tended to be murderous. And if I thought it and said as much, then anyone would.

"That was a joke."

"I know Vivian, I know. I'm just not feeling it. Jokes are a thing that we can tell after we have a military force that won't get destroyed the moment they need to fight. Have the alternative plans been made?"

Vivian shook her head and took a bit of her own food, all leisurely. "Most won't even consider evacuating since it's Paris. Most are all about 'we live here, and we will die here! Ra ra!'"

I'd heard all that before, and from some places with as long a history as Paris. Maybe even longer. "Yeah, that will last right up until the witches are running through the streets, murdering all they can touch."

Vivian looked at me, eyes wide, wine forgotten in her hand. "has that happened before?"

"At least twice in our lifetime. You know the cities."

But... you couldn't have been that much older than me!"

"I grew up in the hunt, Vivian. I grew up fast, and saw more than my share."

I didn't like that look in her eye. It wasn't pity, but I didn't know what it was. Something close, I'd imagine, which pissed me off. I didn't need pity or any variant of it. No one did; there was no point in it. Wasted energy, the entire way through.

My food was good. Many steps over passable, and a few beyond decent, into the good range. Witches wanted to stop all this; it made it easier to imagine what I was fighting for. Well, aside from the obvious.

She liked food like this. She would come; the only question was when.

Vivian was having fun with hers as well. "What say we order dessert?"

I shrugged and gave my plate a glance.  Over half finished. "I'm game; you're the one paying."

Vivian blushed for a moment, then rejoined firmly: "No, the French government is paying. Speaking of, have some of your wine with those; it'll make them taste better."

Didn't have to tell me twice. The wine was a red of some kind, but that was about all I could tell. It was nice enough, but stronger than I thought, and I didn't really know wines as well as I should have.

It was with a small pang of regret that I decided I would not have more than this bottle of it, shared between us. I was actually fine when I was drunk, but some people had issues with drunk Hunt and drunk service people in general. Something about armed people feeling mellow tended to mess with people's heads.

"Oh. Rumor has one of your former friends, or compatriots, in Germany."

"Can't believe everything you hear," it would be good luck to have any hunt left, but all former hunt were being hunted down in turn, which was more than a little ironic. If anyone of any note was left now, it'd be our real heavy hitters. and those guys would be so far underground they might as well be buried already.

"The messengers speaking said it was a man around our age, or perhaps a bit older, using a spear and fighting with cold attacks."

So Dustin. Good for him. "He was alone?"

"According to the messengers, yes. He killed a witch by himself near Halle, then just vanished as if he never existed, according to them."

Well, not so good for his team, then. A hunt cell was meant to stay together; for Dustin to be alone meant the two he'd had with him were dead. "So we couldn't reach out to him... that's a shame. Dustin isn't awful. Not as good as me, but a decent hunter."

Of course, he'd probably try to kill me as a matter of course, but we did that anyway. What were a few death matches between the two of us? We had dozens of those under our belts already. I could use the help.

....I must be really desperate to be thinking of asking Dustin for help. I might as well ask for Olivia's. In killing her.

"Any other rumors?"

"None," Vivian answered. "We're still looking of course, but so is everyone else, and if they have any former hunt themselves, they are keeping it quiet. Same as we are, really; no need to stand up and get our heads cut off first."

"I'm sure everyone else is thinking the same. Pay attention to their military. Any change in training regimens is a dead giveaway, same as it is here."

"We already are," Vivian answered.

No, must control hands of death; she didn't mean anything by the eye roll there; she didn't know my dark past with such behaviors.

Gray let go of my hand, and I eased it away from my gun. I had no issue letting go this time. "Right, I should have expected you'd know about spy stuff."

"All government military employees know about spy stuff, as you call it," Vivian replied. "We have little choice; the brass speak of it monthly. In this time, it's even weekly."

"Right." Maybe I was so used to being the expert in my own sphere, I had sub-consciously included that attitude for other spheres of knowledge? I knew quite a bit about spy stuff, but was I really an expert? Only for witches, right? I didn't spy on people nearly as often.

"Well, I'm done," Vivian declared. "Dessert?"

At last. "Sure. what do you recommend?"

I didn't like that smile.