Desmoterion, page 26
He was about to write it off and return to his spot on the floor when he caught a shifting shape from the corner of his eye. He froze and watched as someone in black walked right under the streetlight and gestured at someone who was out of view.
“Fuck.” Girish swore under his breath and hurried to the back of the store and shook Trent’s arm. “Trent, someone is outside.”
“Urgh.” Trent jerked and rolled over to look up. “Where... what’s wrong?”
Girish knelt beside the bed and whispered, “Someone’s outside with others. I have a feeling we’re surrounded.”
“Shit!” Trent shot up onto his feet, only to stop short.
Girish turned to look at the man with a mask over his face and a machine gun pointing right at Trent.
* * *
“They called in the big boys, huh? I haven’t seen you in a while, Matteo.” Trent smiled at the man who’d followed Girish into their temporary bedroom as if it was a pleasant and fortuitous reunion.
Matteo grinned at Trent. “It has been a while, hasn’t it? Though at least you gave me quite the runaround, trying to find where the tunnel might end, save for walking it myself.”
Girish turned to Trent. “I thought it wasn’t detectable?”
Matteo laughed at Girish’s confusion. “Anything is detectable with enough patience. As it is, it meant hacking into satellites, messing with the displays, and coaxing other satellites to line up just right to find the end of it. It wasn’t easy. Of course, we had no way of knowing if you were here or not. You could have died underground, but seeing as you have Trent with you, that’s not likely.”
“I’m not going back, Matteo.”
Matteo laughed and waved his weapon. “Outside! Both of you!”
Several armed operatives had crowded into the store. They parted to create a path for Trent and Girish to pass outside. There wasn’t any point in resisting inside the store; they were outnumbered and caught unprepared.
Outside, a couple of guys grabbed them and shoved them up against the store on either side of the door and patted them down.
When Matteo exited the store, Trent repeated, “I’m not going back, so just shoot me where I stand.”
“I felt the same when I started there years ago. It was before you arrived, and I doubt nothing much has changed. At least you didn’t have to go through a regime change when the current leader had his boss murdered in the garage. That’s why he’s so paranoid that you might take his place doing the same thing. Though somehow, I’ve never pegged you as a person who’d want any of that.”
“And how would you know any of that? You said it yourself: you were long gone when I arrived, and we’ve only seen each other a few times over the past five years.”
“Oh, Trent, do you think I can’t hack into that sort of thing? They gave me everything on you before sending me to track you down.”
Girish turned around when the operatives were satisfied he was unarmed and posed no threat. “Then you know nothing of Trent. He’d rather die than go back.”
Matteo glared at Girish. “I’m not finished, Kannan. Quit interrupting.”
Trent folded his arms across his chest. “Then get to the point. I can’t be bothered to listen to a monologue if all you’re going to do is kill me.”
Matteo moved forward to stand in front of Trent. “After all my research, I found one glaring thing about you, and that is you hold honor higher than anyone. Continue to fight with Mike, determined to never let him beat you. You don’t back down from challenges, and I’m impressed.”
Girish stared at Trent. “Really?”
“The prospect of beating the shit out of me is what’s kept you alive for the last year, just like it did when Mike humiliated me on the mission to obtain him. I never forgave him for that until I was able to consistently hold him at bay or beat him.”
Matteo smiled. “Exactly, and now I’m giving you the same option. I want to take on the one man who beat Mike, as I never got that chance. If you win, I’ll let both of you go free and just tell my superiors that I ended up murdering you.”
Trent scoffed. “And what’s the catch? I don’t believe for a moment your men will let us waltz out with no resistance.”
“There is no catch; it’s simply that. If you can beat me, or at least incapacitate me, I’ll let you go. I’ve told them you’re an expert shot and won’t hesitate to blow their heads off given the chance.”
Trent shrugged and then spoke, “I assume this is without weapons.”
“Oh yes, I wouldn’t dream of any other way.”
Trent turned to Girish, pulling a knife from his shirt and handing it to him. He then pulled out a total of five blades from various spots that Girish couldn’t even comprehend. He leaned into Girish and whispered, “If they renege on the deal, throw those at their heads.”
“You’re going through with this? What if he beats you?”
“He won’t.” Trent patted Girish on the arm. “But we’ve nothing to lose.”
Matteo handed off his gun and various weapons to one of his men. He turned back to the men circling them. “No one is to interrupt our fight unless one of us dies or is wounded. Beyond that, hold your ground and do not fire any bullets to sway either side. I will end this immediately if this occurs.”
Trent got into a martial arts pose. “Understood. Let’s begin this.”
* * *
Ten minutes later, both parties were heaving hard breaths and slouching over a little.
Matteo shook his wet, shoulder-length black hair at Trent. “I didn’t think we were this evenly matched; an oversight on my part.”
“Are you here to talk or fight?” Trent returned to a martial arts position and waited.
Matteo laughed and moved in again to take a swing at Trent, missing and connecting with the air instead. He tried to right himself, but Trent took the chance to step forward and land a punch to Matteo’s ribs. The air whooshed out of him, and he tumbled to the ground.
Trent backed off to allow Matteo to get back up. He wanted to keep this a fair fight so his itchy trigger men wouldn’t cry foul.
Matteo spat out a mouthful of blood on the ground and pushed himself back up. “I’m getting sloppy.”
“Want to end this? I believe you’re losing, in dramatic fashion, no less, but losing nevertheless. There’s no harm in admitting defeat. It’s something Girish needs to learn.”
Girish rolled his eyes at the comment but said nothing.
Matteo shook his head. “No, I want to finish this. I believe I’m still standing and able to block you.”
“No, you aren’t.” Trent pointed at Matteo’s ribs. “Those are now broken, meaning I can keep aiming there and doing more damage until you collapse from hemorrhaging. I don’t think you want to go down like that. Just let us leave like you promised, and we can end this.”
“You assume you’ll get another opportunity for that. I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
Girish called out, “Yes, you will, you idiot. I made the same mistake against Trent, and I ended up in a hospital bed because of it.”
Trent motioned to Girish. “He’s right. It was my job to find weaknesses in recruits and to have them corrected. If they didn’t, they were eliminated.”
Matteo advanced on Trent, intent on aiming for Trent’s upper chest, but Trent sidestepped it. Instead, Trent grabbed Matteo’s left arm and twisted it the wrong way.
A tortured howl rumbled out from Matteo’s stocky chest.
“I’ll keep twisting it until it breaks, unless you end this right now. There’s no point in killing yourself, failing to best someone out of your league.”
Matteo swung his right hand around until Trent saw it contained a small knife.
Trent ducked, reaching down to pull something out of his shoe. He came back up and put it against Matteo’s balls. “I’ll cut them straight off if you so much come any closer with that.”
Matteo moved back from Trent. “Bravo, Trent, I had to wonder if you were actually going to be honorable in this and not have a weapon on you.”
Trent pointed to the weapon in Matteo’s hand. “And what the hell is that?”
“You’ve caught me red-handed, it seems. I fully expected you to pull a weapon a hell of a lot sooner than this. I didn’t think I’d have to provoke you first. Girish is right; you won’t stop until you’ve won, no matter the cost.”
“Now what?”
Matteo nodded to his men. “We let you go as planned. Though a word before we leave. Girish mentioning he was in the hospital, tells me they might have marked him with another tag. I assume you’ve already removed one, but he could have another one. You might have to check him for others before continuing on.”
Trent frowned. “How the hell did you know that? I’ve never seen them tag people twice.”
“Let’s just say being a high-ranking operative offers me information that most wouldn’t be privy to. You’ve had a target on your head for a while, but your leader never acted on it until now. He was waiting for you to make your next move. I assume he pitted the two of you against each other at first, but I doubt he trusted Girish further than he could throw him. Remember, your former boss is paranoid and will do anything to stay in control.”
Girish sighed. “More knives digging into me.”
“No, they wouldn’t bother to implant it inside you, as that would counteract the other one. I’m talking about a tag on your skin that they can put on while they knock you out with drugs. You’d never even know it was there until someone was directly looking at it.”
Girish stared at Matteo in disbelief.
Matteo laughed and moved away, motioning to his men surrounding the building. “Good luck, Trent. I hope you get to the place you’re intending to go.”
Trent groaned. “I need to turn my location device on again, and we need to get out of here in case Matteo forgets to tell them what he said he would.”
* * *
Ward frowned at his display. “Sir, I’m getting some sort of signal, but I can’t identify it.”
Kipper moved over to look down. “Where are you on the map?”
“Well, I was following east to see if we could locate where the tunnel might have gone out, and I just kept going east until I ran into what appeared to be a convenience store. That’s when I noticed that signal.”
Kipper stared at the faint glow on the screen. “Can you zoom in closer?”
“Not with this satellite, but let me switch over to another one.”
Kipper waited, and then Trent and Girish’s faces came into view. “Girish has another tag?”
Stevenson moved over to look at the display. “You’ve found them! I’ll radio to Matteo.”
Kipper pointed at the men walking away from the convenience store. “Can you identify those men?”
Ward typed into his keyboard, and one of them popped up. “Only the bigger man is showing up. He’s named....”
Kipper turned to call out to Stevenson, “Don’t bother; he already found Trent and apparently is leaving.”
Stevenson stared at Kipper. “Why?”
“No idea, as we don’t have an audio feed on Matteo.”
Stevenson radioed to Matteo. “Report! Why are you leaving Dupont to escape?”
A snort came over the radio. “I don’t answer to you, newbie. I’ve done what I felt was right.”
“That’s not part of the deal!” Stevenson’s fists balled up at his sides.
“I made no deal with you. If you want to get him, then do it yourself, or aren’t you enough of a man to do it without risking others?”
Kipper’s eyebrow rose, but he said nothing.
Stevenson bristled with anger. “Get back there and capture Dupont!”
“Goodbye, newbie. It was nice chatting with you, but as you can see or maybe not see, I’m on the way to the hospital. Broken ribs tend to be tricky to fix, and I’d rather not die from it.”
“Dupont broke your ribs?”
Kipper hid his smirk.
“He did, in what I have to say was the ultimate fight between us. That’s why I’m letting him go. He beat me fair and square. I have to admire anyone who can keep me on my toes and goad me into poor decisions. I won’t forget that.”
Stevenson stepped away from the console when the signal went dead and muttered, “I am so fucked.”
* * *
Girish and Trent hurried to gather their stuff, along with any food they could carry, to sustain them for the next part of the journey.
Trent switched on his gadget to mask Girish’s tag again. “I should have known they’d put another tag on you. It means I’ll have to thoroughly search you when we get to the gas station.”
“We’re still going to that? I thought we were further ahead than it was.”
“We are, but it’s the next place to sleep unless we encounter something else.”
“Why not try to cross the border now?”
Trent packed up his bag. “We’re still more than a day's hike away. We have two more days to travel because there’s a specific place we have to cross it that I know of. Any other place will get us shot on sight, and I don’t want to die like that.”
Girish shouldered his duffel. “What’s that behind this store?”
“It looks to be a motorcycle, but it’s probably dead or lacking gas.”
Girish stroked his chin and headed out the front door.
Trent grabbed his bag and followed him. “Where are you going?”
Girish went around the building to check out the motorcycle. He stopped short and gaped. “Fuck, that’s a Harley.”
Trent shuffled over to him. “Is that supposed to mean something? I mean, I know it’s a brand of motorcycle.”
Girish dropped his bag and approached the motorcycle. “No way would someone leave this out in the open; it’s in excellent condition. Obviously someone’s pride and joy. I wonder if that suited man rode it here, and they didn’t notice it when they left.”
“Could be, but it doesn’t matter much in the long run. I can’t drive a motorcycle.”
Girish grinned and put his leg over the saddle. He groaned when he shifted up on the seat. “I haven’t ridden one of these in years.” He looked down to spot keys in the ignition. “Who the hell would leave their keys in the ignition?”
“Someone who thought he was safe here and dropping in for a quick meeting. Too bad he was dead wrong.”
Girish groaned at the pun and revved the engine to life. “I think I have a better way to get us to that gas station. Or even to the next place on your plot.”
“A motorcycle is too trackable by satellites.”
“You’re blocking their signal. And this is a hell of a lot faster than walking. We could shave hours off our trip.”
Trent looked at the two bags. “We can’t fit those on it.”
Girish switched the motorcycle off and looked inside the back compartment. “One of them will fit in this for sure. We can latch the other over it with these bungee cords.”
Trent shuffled over to deposit his bag in the compartment. “We might as well put the guns in there and leave the food outside.”
“Wait, let me grab a gun in case we need to shoot from the motorcycle. I already know you’re armed to the teeth with all of those knives. I don’t even know where you pulled most of those out of.”
Trent winked at Girish, pulling out his handgun to put in his jacket. “That’s probably for the best.”
Once they secured the gear, Girish revved the engine back up. “It looks like we have almost a full tank, so he must have put some in nearby.”
Trent hesitated.
“Relax, I know what I’m doing, and it’s not like the whole trip will be on this. Just this part of it since it’s faster than walking along roads to nowhere.”
Trent climbed behind Girish.
Girish took his hands off the handlebars and placed Trent’s hands around his waist. “You’re going to want to hold on. Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do, but I’d rather you not fall off during a turn.”
Trent held onto Girish’s middle. “I have no problems holding you; it’s the cops that I’m worried about.”
“I’ll be careful and follow the speed limit. The last thing we need is to get pulled over.”
* * *
Trent buried his face into Girish’s back to avoid the whipping wind. He sighed at the warmth coming from Girish’s body; it had been too long since he held a man that close.
Finding comfort with a man in his arms was the last thing he really needed, and yet he craved it like a drug.
He hoped the village they’d all picked out would be a safe place. And maybe, just maybe, Trent would find that comfort soon.
* * *
Girish pulled off to the side and pointed in the distance. “We have a problem.”
Several local police cars blocked the road ahead. Trent pulled out his location device and flicked through a few screens. “Let’s head back and take the first road to the west. We’ll have to backtrack, but it will get us to the gas station without going through that.”
Girish turned the motorcycle around, ready to head back up the way they came. “I’d imagine it’ll get harder once we get closer to the border.”
Trent stowed away the device and held onto Girish again. “That’s why I didn’t like this idea in the first place. It’s easier to sneak through on foot than on a motorcycle.”
“Maybe, but shaving off several hours of walking will save us time and energy.”
* * *
When Girish slowed to turn onto the westbound road, he noticed that the vehicle behind him was actually a police car. And when he turned onto the new road, the car also turned. “Oh fuck, one of them is following us.”
“Dammit, why didn’t we notice that?” Trent looked around at the vehicle.
Before regaining his speed after the turn, Girish called back, “We can’t shoot him because he might be in contact with the other cops.”
“Well, we have two options. Either speed up to lose him or just continue to our destination and kill him there.”
