Chapter I

- Hi, how's it going? Mike said and leaped inside. 

Arthur shrugged. 

- Well. At least I think so...

Mike took a chair and leaned on his elbows. Arthur's appartment was small, tidy but crude. Something that a bachelor could come by, but nothing too fancy. 

- Look, I have been thinking... Have you found a job?

- I? Yeah, I work at grocery store, packing stuff.

- You? At a grocery? I wouldn't imagine that.

- Me either. But, well... What else could I do? Like, a drop off from college, no other professional skills than killing people. There really aren't many business opportunities for that kind of guys, if I don't fancy robbing banks.

- Look, I might have some... Leads. 

- For robbing banks?

- Hah, no, not that kinda stuff. But close. Kinda.

- I'm not sure if I really want to hear. 

- Oh, you will. Look, I got acquittance with one fellow... He offers pretty good money. 

- How much?

- What do ya think if I say two-hundred grand per year? If you survive that long, of course.

- Fiuu. And you're really sure it's not about robbing banks?

- No, nothing like that. The same thing you did in the army. Only, now being paid like it should be.

- Private security? 

- Yeah, you nailed it.

- Arrr...do you know if this guy is... like, legimate?

- So that he's not cop or something?

- Yeah, along those lines... Or some conman.

- Well, there's only one way to find out... He hangs around at the bar near the park. Ya coming?

Arthur stood still and thought. When he got out, he had thought "Never again". But this "civilian life"... It felt so empty and meaningless. People so high flying and bragging on some pointless shit. He missed those boys, even though sometimes he had been ready to blow their heads off. 

- Yeah, I'm coming. Wait a sec.

Arthur opened a closet and took a bullet vest and a Glock 19 from the drawer. 

- Wait, you take a vest and gun? 

- Of course. What d'ya thougth, man? I never go outside without them.

- Ya know, this ain't a fucking Iraq or something. 

- Well, sometimes it pretty much feels like one. You should hear the gunshots at night. Like Baghdad in its prime. 

- Look, don't take offense... But have you got over things?

- None taken. Over what?

- Like...what happened in Helmand?

Arthur was silent. 

- Yeah, of course, dude. What kinda question was that?

- Well, I just wanted to check. You were a good soldier, mate. You know that, doncha? 

- Sometimes... There was so much shit going on. I got sick of it. 

- Yeah, I know... This dude, Nick's his name, he said they look for enlisted. They got officers, but lack boots on the ground.

- Someone has to get the shit done. Pretty boys aren't gonna cut it. 

- Yeah, exactly. That's why we're going, to get shit done. And earn some buck, righteously so. 

- I just hope there ain't too many pretty boys fuzzing around. I'm tired of them.

- Have you thought you'd be one of them? Like, you got to college. You'd have done them to end in 'form. If ya had taken that corporal exam, they'd have send ya to cadet school. 

- Nah. It's not for me. I'm not interested in babysitting some nerds that barely came off from their mothers' titties and jerk off for some fucking 'tube star. I wanna do business, not fricking herding. 

- Ya know, you were once one of them. I remember. 

- Nah, that's so long time ago... Like, a lifetime. Really, a lifetime. If some dude came at that day with his gf when I got to boot camp, that baby could serve in the Army by now. 

- Not really. We don't do child soldiers. Although you always couldn't believe so.

- Yeah. Now, Are we going or just sitting and chewing bullshit?

- Alright, let's go. Now, let me do the talking. And keep that Austrian on your belt. Ya know what happened last time.

*