# **TRUE PIECE**
## **Chapter 2: The Absolute Killer**
The first person Eullian Hound invited to help him keep the peace was waiting to be executed beneath a Marine flag.
His name was Hijo Albino.
The newspapers called him **the Absolute Killer**.
He had killed one hundred and nine people.
Not approximately.
Not according to rumor.
Exactly one hundred and nine.
Hijo remembered every name.
That frightened people more than the number.
Before killing someone, he wrote the person's name inside a small white book. Then he announced the name aloud.
After that, the target always died.
No mistaken identities.
No accidental victims.
No survivors.
The world therefore treated Hijo's voice like a funeral bell.
Eullian learned all of this from the little girl who had found him crawling out of a refrigerator.
She stood outside Brinehook's damaged courthouse, reading from a wanted poster while Eullian ate a raw silverfin.
"'Hijo Albino,'" she said. "'Alias: the Absolute Killer. One hundred and nine confirmed murders. Public execution at Marine Base Eighteen before tomorrow's sunrise.'"
Eullian chewed thoughtfully.
The girl lowered the poster.
"You aren't supposed to eat fish like that."
"It was already dead."
"That isn't the problem."
Eullian examined Hijo's painted face.
White hair.
Colorless skin.
Pale gray eyes.
No smile.
"He looks lonely."
"He is a murderer."
"Those can happen together."
"You should stay away from him."
"I haven't decided to go near him."
"You're holding the poster."
Eullian looked at his hand.
"That is strong evidence."
Behind them, Brinehook Harbor remained injured but temporarily peaceful.
The fishermen had recovered most of their catch.
The civilians had eaten first.
The surviving Marines had eaten second.
The captured Red Jaw Pirates had complained until Daro Pell placed a fish head in their captain's lap and told them to share.
Captain Orlen Vask remained locked inside his own records room.
The arrangement was not justice.
It was lunch.
Sometimes peace began there.
Daro approached Eullian with a fresh bandage wrapped around his forehead.
"Base Eighteen is two miles inland," he said.
Eullian looked toward the hills.
"I didn't ask."
"You were about to."
"I might have found it myself."
"You tried to reach the harbor this morning and walked into a bakery."
"The bakery smelled useful."
Daro pointed at the poster.
"Hijo Albino is not like the pirates you fought."
"Good. Fighting the same person repeatedly would be boring."
"He studies people before he kills them. Their habits. Their weaknesses. Their families. He can wait months for one opening."
Eullian stopped chewing.
"Families?"
"He learns who will mourn the target."
"Why?"
"Some say he likes knowing the damage."
The little girl shook her head.
"No."
Daro looked at her.
"No?"
"He learns the mourners so he can send them money."
Neither man spoke.
The girl pointed across the street.
Four Marines were tearing Hijo's posters from the walls.
One carried a bucket of oil.
Another held a torch.
They were not removing the posters carefully.
They were destroying them.
Eullian watched their hands.
One Marine trembled.
Another kept looking toward the inland road.
A third had tears drying on his face.
They were not afraid of Hijo escaping.
They were afraid of someone learning why he had been captured.
Eullian stood.
"Hijo needs help."
Daro sighed.
"You learned his name five minutes ago."
"He still needs help."
"You don't know that."
Eullian pointed toward the burning posters.
"People hide lies quickly."
Then he looked toward the cemetery beyond the harbor.
"Bodies take longer."
He began walking inland.
After twenty steps, he returned.
"Which road?"
---
Marine Base Eighteen had been built to defend Brinehook from pirates.
Its cannons faced Brinehook.
Eullian decided this was suspicious.
The base stood behind a thirty-foot stone wall reinforced with iron plates. Riflemen watched from towers. A second gate separated the main courtyard from the prison wing.
The Marine emblem above the entrance had recently been polished.
The blood beneath it had not.
Eullian stopped before the gate.
A lieutenant leaned over the wall.
"State your name and purpose."
"Eullian Hound."
The lieutenant waited.
"That was the name," Eullian said.
"Your purpose."
"I'm here for Hijo Albino."
Every rifle turned toward him.
Eullian nodded.
"That reaction was informative."
The lieutenant raised one hand.
"Eullian Hound, you are under arrest for assaulting Marine personnel, obstructing government taxation, destroying government property, and aiding piracy."
"I tied the pirates up."
"You also destroyed three confiscated boats."
"One of those was already broken."
The lieutenant glanced at a document.
"It says two and a half boats."
"That sounds fair."
The gates opened.
Thirty-six Marines waited inside.
Some stood eagerly.
Others looked sick.
Eullian walked through the entrance with his hands raised.
"I would prefer not to fight all of you."
"On your knees!" the lieutenant ordered.
"That was my second preference."
The Marines fired.
Eullian dropped flat.
Bullets struck the gate behind him.
He rolled beneath the next volley, seized a fallen rifle, and swung it sideways by the barrel.
The wooden stock struck three Marines across their legs.
He used less force than he had at the harbor.
They fell screaming, but nothing broke.
A saber descended toward his neck.
Eullian caught the Marine's wrist and squeezed until the weapon dropped.
He did not punch the man.
Instead, he lifted him by the belt and threw him into four others.
Bodies collided.
No blood appeared.
Eullian smiled.
"I'm improving."
A rifle stock struck his wounded shoulder.
Pain flashed through him.
His knees buckled.
A second Marine drove a boot into his ribs, reopening the cut beneath his bandages.
Eullian caught the boot, twisted, and dropped the attacker face-first into the dirt.
He rose more slowly.
Cold, blood loss, and hunger had not disappeared merely because another chapter had begun.
He was powerful.
He was not repaired.
The lieutenant drew a pistol.
"Fire again!"
"Don't!"
The command came from a young Marine near the prison gate.
He had a bruised throat and two missing fingernails.
The lieutenant turned.
"What did you say, Private?"
The young Marine swallowed.
"He came for Albino. Commander Brask wants Albino alive until the execution."
The lieutenant's expression changed.
Only slightly.
Eullian noticed.
The private had not spoken to protect Eullian.
He had spoken to protect someone inside the prison.
The lieutenant struck him across the mouth.
"Return to formation."
Eullian stepped between them.
"Who are they threatening?"
The private froze.
The lieutenant raised his pistol.
Eullian's hand moved.
Two fingers pinched the barrel.
He bent it upward.
The lieutenant stared at the curved weapon.
Eullian looked at the private.
"Who?"
"My brother," the Marine whispered.
"Where?"
"Western cells."
"How many prisoners?"
"Eleven."
"Why are they there?"
Before the private could answer, slow applause came from the command building.
Acting Commander Sile Brask stood on the upper platform.
He was short, heavy, and covered in medals earned during battles he had observed from ships.
Gold rings crowded his fingers.
A white Marine coat rested across his shoulders.
Beside him stood six officers.
Behind him stood eleven civilians in chains.
Two fishermen.
A doctor.
Three dockworkers.
An elderly man with a crushed hand.
A teenage courier.
A mother holding an infant.
Two little girls tied together at the wrists.
Brask rested a pistol against the mother's head.
"You have made a dramatic entrance," he said.
"I came through the gate."
"You assaulted my Marines."
"They shot first."
"They are the law."
Eullian looked around at the frightened soldiers.
"No. They work here."
Brask's smile hardened.
The prison door opened.
Hijo Albino walked into the courtyard.
He wore iron cuffs, ankle chains, and a thick collar connected to a black cable trailing behind him.
His hair was white and cut unevenly.
His skin was nearly colorless.
His eyes were pale gray, calm and exhausted.
He carried no sword.
No gun.
No visible weapon.
Straight scars crossed every finger.
He looked at Eullian's shoulder.
"You are bleeding."
"People keep noticing."
"They should stop causing it."
His voice was soft.
Not emotionless.
Controlled.
There was a difference.
Brask laughed.
"The Absolute Killer came to this base asking for Marine help. Imagine it."
Hijo looked at him.
"I requested lawful assistance."
"You surrendered."
"After you aimed cannons at a refugee ship."
"You obeyed."
"I prevented you from firing."
Brask gestured toward the hostages.
"Hijo arrived here three months ago with these witnesses and a collection of stolen ledgers. He claimed my officers were selling weapons, prisoner labor, and patrol routes to pirates."
"Were you?" Eullian asked.
Brask ignored him.
"Hijo believed the Marines would protect the witnesses."
Eullian looked at Hijo.
"You trusted them?"
"I trusted the uniform."
"That was not your smartest decision."
"No."
Hijo offered no excuse.
Brask tapped the pistol against the mother's temple.
"The evidence now belongs to me. The witnesses belong to me. And tomorrow, the infamous Hijo Albino will be executed for twenty-seven additional murders."
Hijo's gaze remained fixed on the hostages.
"I did not kill those twenty-seven."
Brask smiled.
"The newspapers will say you did."
"Who killed them?" Eullian asked.
"The base," Hijo said. "Five Marines who discovered the weapons trade. Eight prisoners sold under false names. Six dockworkers who recorded illegal shipments. Four pirate couriers. Three judges."
"That is twenty-six," Eullian said.
Hijo's eyes shifted toward him.
It was the first sign of surprise he had shown.
Brask's smile vanished.
Hijo finished quietly.
"And one child who saw a judge die."
The courtyard became still.
Eullian looked at Brask.
"You killed a child."
"I gave an order."
"You say that like the words didn't come from you."
"The boy was a witness."
"He was a boy first."
Brask raised his free hand.
The black cable attached to Hijo's collar tightened.
"Albino could escape whenever he wishes," Brask said. "He could kill every officer here before most of you drew breath."
Several Marines stepped away from Hijo.
"He does not," Brask continued, "because the western prison cells are fitted with blasting charges. If he breaks the collar, crosses the painted boundary, attacks me, or allows his heartbeat to stop, the charges ignite."
A white line had been painted around Hijo's feet.
Hijo stood inside it.
Perfectly still.
Eullian looked toward the hostages.
"You need help saving them."
"Yes."
"Not escaping."
"No."
"You could have killed Brask before surrendering."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you?"
"The refugee ship carried forty-three people. Brask's cannons had already been loaded."
Eullian studied him.
Hijo's face revealed almost nothing.
His hands revealed everything.
They were held slightly away from his body so the chains would not rattle.
He did not want the two chained girls to hear them.
"You killed one hundred and nine people," Eullian said.
"Yes."
"Were they all guilty?"
"No."
Several Marines looked at him.
Hijo continued before anyone could misunderstand.
"Three were innocent."
Brask laughed.
Eullian did not.
"Accidents?"
"Failures of certainty."
"You made mistakes."
"Yes."
"Did you stop counting them?"
"No."
"Did you send money to their families?"
Hijo looked toward the little white book hanging from Brask's belt.
"Yes."
Brask pulled it free.
"One hundred and nine names," he said. "Every beautiful little excuse."
"They are not excuses," Hijo replied. "They are debts."
Eullian understood him then.
Hijo did not lack emotion.
He distrusted emotion that asked to be seen.
He carried guilt privately because displaying pain could become another way of asking victims to comfort the person who caused it.
That was not coldness.
It was punishment without an audience.
Eullian pointed toward the hostages.
"How long after the collar triggers do the explosives go off?"
"Three seconds," Hijo answered.
"How many people can you move in three seconds?"
"Not eleven."
"How many?"
"Six without risking the infant. Eight if the mother releases it. Ten if the old man survives being carried improperly."
"Not enough."
"No."
Eullian looked at the frightened Marines.
Then at the private with missing fingernails.
"How many of you knew?"
Nobody answered.
"How many helped Brask?"
Seven officers raised their weapons.
That answered part of it.
"How many were scared?"
Most of the remaining Marines looked down.
Eullian pointed at the private.
"Your brother is one of the dockworkers?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where the blasting controls are?"
"In the command office."
Brask pressed the pistol harder against the mother.
"Take another step and she dies."
Eullian did not move.
Instead, he smiled at Hijo.
"Can you kill him before his finger moves?"
"Yes."
"Can you do it without leaving the circle?"
Hijo glanced at the distance.
"No."
"Can you make him miss?"
A thin line appeared between Hijo's cuffed hands.
It had been hidden inside one of the scars across his fingers.
Not a sword.
Not ordinary wire.
A nearly invisible white cutting thread.
"Yes."
Brask saw it too late.
Hijo flicked one finger.
The thread crossed the courtyard.
Brask's pistol split into four pieces.
The bullet remained unfired.
Eullian moved.
He did not attack Brask.
He struck the command building's support pillar.
The upper platform dropped six feet.
Officers fell.
The hostages collapsed together, but Eullian caught the platform before it crushed them.
Stone and timber rested across his shoulders.
His injured arm shook violently.
"Now!" he shouted.
The private ran.
So did twelve other Marines.
Not toward Eullian.
Toward the command office.
The seven loyal officers tried to stop them.
Hijo's white threads moved.
Rifles separated at the stocks.
Belts snapped.
Bootlaces split.
Uniform sleeves became pinned to walls.
Not one throat opened.
Not one artery spilled.
The Absolute Killer disabled nineteen armed people without killing any of them.
The private reached the command office.
He found the blasting panel beneath Brask's desk.
Eleven brass switches stood upright.
A twelfth was painted red.
"Which one?" he shouted.
"All eleven!" Hijo answered.
Brask lunged toward the office.
Eullian threw the collapsed platform aside.
It struck the ground hard enough to block Brask's path.
The private slammed every brass switch downward.
The black cable attached to Hijo's collar went slack.
Nothing exploded.
For one breath, no one moved.
Then Hijo stepped across the white line.
The iron collar remained silent.
He walked toward Brask.
The corrupt commander crawled backward.
"You cannot kill a Marine officer in front of witnesses."
Hijo removed the white book from Brask's belt.
"You killed twenty-seven people in front of witnesses."
"I have rank."
"You have a coat."
Hijo opened the book to an empty page.
He wrote slowly.
**Sile Brask.**
Every person in the courtyard saw the name.
Hijo looked directly at him.
"Sile Brask will die."
The commander screamed.
Hijo raised one scarred hand.
Eullian caught his wrist.
Hijo looked at him.
"You asked me to help you keep peace," Eullian said.
"You have not asked me yet."
"I was getting there."
"Release my hand."
"No."
"This man murdered children."
"I know."
"He will do it again."
"Maybe."
"That answer is insufficient."
"It's honest."
Hijo's white thread tightened between his fingers.
Eullian did not let go.
"I'm not saying Brask deserves mercy," Eullian said. "I don't know if he does."
"He does not."
"I'm saying the people he hurt deserve the truth more than he deserves a fast death."
Hijo became still.
The surviving witnesses watched them.
The frightened Marines watched them.
Even Brask stopped crawling.
Eullian continued.
"If you kill him now, everyone says the Absolute Killer attacked a Marine base. Brask becomes a dead officer. The witnesses become accomplices. The guilty Marines blame everything on you."
Hijo glanced toward the confiscated ledgers inside the command office.
"He must testify," he said.
"Yes."
"He will lie."
"Yes."
"He will attempt escape."
"Probably."
"He will order more deaths."
"Then we stop him again."
"How many times?"
"As many as it takes."
Hijo studied Eullian.
"You cannot be everywhere."
"No."
"You cannot save everyone."
"No."
"You will fail."
"Yes."
The answers came without hesitation.
Eullian did not offer impossible peace.
He offered work.
Hijo looked down at Brask's name.
For years, once a name entered the white book, death followed.
Certainty had been his weapon.
Then certainty had failed three innocent people.
Now Eullian was asking him to live with uncertainty rather than solving it through murder.
Hijo closed the book.
"Sile Brask will die," he repeated.
Eullian's grip tightened.
"Not today," Hijo finished.
The courtyard released a breath.
For the first time, someone whose death Hijo had announced remained alive.
The title **Absolute Killer** cracked without making a sound.
Eullian released his wrist.
"Join my crew."
"No."
"We're going to keep peace until we die."
"That is impossible."
"I know."
"You have no ship."
"I recently had a refrigerator."
"You cannot navigate."
"I found this base."
"Daro gave you directions."
"They worked."
"You are injured, reckless, and dangerously comfortable acting without information."
Eullian smiled.
"You noticed."
Hijo looked toward the freed prisoners.
Then toward the Marines who had finally turned against Brask.
Then toward the white book in his hand.
"What would my role be?"
"Stopping me from making bad decisions."
"That would require constant labor."
"You can also kill people."
Hijo's gaze sharpened.
Eullian raised one finger.
"Only when there is no better way."
"There is almost always a better way."
"Then you're perfect."
"I am not."
"Good. Perfect people seem expensive."
Hijo stared at him for several seconds.
Then he walked past.
Eullian followed.
"I knew you'd join."
"I have not joined."
"You're walking with me."
"I am leaving the base."
"In the same direction as me."
"There is one gate."
"What should we call the crew?"
"Nothing."
"The Peace Crew?"
"No."
"The Peace Pirates?"
"Worse."
"The Refrigerator Pirates?"
Hijo stopped.
"I will kill you."
Eullian grinned.
"Then you joined."
Hijo continued walking.
For the briefest moment, the corner of his mouth moved.
It was not quite a smile.
But Hijo Albino had spent most of his life making promises of death.
Walking beside Eullian Hound was the first promise he had made that might require him to live.