Balance (71 page)

“Leonidas Drakos is my
godfather
.  I
instructed
him to use this hotel.”

He
relapses back
in
to shock.

“Michael, we’
re leaving
Chango’s
employ
ment
…
now
.”

…

“What the h
ell
is going on?”  Mr. Black
snaps
.
“
G
et
the driver on
comms
,
n
ow
!
”

“Sir
,
there a
re sounds of combat
coming from
inside the hotel.  It started
almost ten
minutes ago.”
The driver explains.

“Where are our assets?”

The
driver’s
voice heard over the Ready Room sound system,
“No clue, they never came out.  Sir,
it
sounds to be a major
firefight
going on
in there.”

“Sir, t
hey’re
still alive and together
at
the
East
end of the hotel
,
South
side
.
  They’re not moving
.”
A
t
echnician
announces
.

“What floor
.”
Black demands
.

“No way of telling
.
”

“Driver, can you see the
South
side, East end
?
”

“Yes sir, what…”
Silence
interrupt
s the audio feed
.

“Driver … Driver
?
  What the hell just happened?” Mr. Black barks.

T
he technician turns around
,
“Sir, the driver’s chip
,
i
t’
s
indicating
no pulse
.
He appears
to have expired
.”

“What
in
the hell is going on
in
there?” 
Ms. Smith
repeats
.

“How f
a
r out is
the
contingency plan?” Takada
inquires
.

“At least
fifteen-minutes
, sir.
”
O
ffers the technician
.

“Shit, they’ll be dead in five
!
”
E
xclaims Black
.

…

Michael
discards
the rifle out the window, its usefulness over.
“How’
d you know there would be a sniper in here?”

“
T
hat’s where I
’d have
positioned on
e. 
A lot of
people
want
my Godfather
dead.  I
nterested parties
would’ve
made sure if he got out of the
building,
he’d still be killed.  T
hat’s why I had
our
car park there, so someone might think it was for
L
eonidas, position
ing
a sniper in this room.  W
e needed to take out our driver
for this to
work.  I
also needed
access to
a
cell
, one Takada could not trace or intercept.  Most importantly, we needed
an outside
agent for the next part.”

Michael looks at Rena as if he’s seeing someone entirely
foreign
.

H
olding the gun
trained
at the agent
’
s head
,
Rena
removes
the
cell
from inside his jacket
.
  Michael unties his hands and pull
s
the gag from his mouth.

“Make the call.
T
ell your handlers
he’s here
, t
he Harbinger of Death
.  Tell them
he
’
s killing everyone.”
Rena
orders
.

Defiant
,
t
he agent, makes the call.

Michael
,
still in shock
,
watches
the drama
unfold
.  H
ow can
the man they were to
terminate
be her
godfather
?
  She
’s
been tracking him for
weeks
.
H
er search program triggered
the immersion.  He
deliberates
in
side
his head,
‘
W
hat the hell is going on
?
’

Ripping the cell from the agent’s hand
,
Rena
sho
ots
him
in the head
, emotionless and cold,
without hesitation
. 
U
s
ing
the
cell
, she
dial
s
a
number,
scanning
the room
she waits for the other party to pick up
. 
Outside
,
a
cacophony of shouts and gunfire,
pandemonium ensu
es
.
 
“Are you out?  Good.  I need you to mee
t us.  You know where. 
F
ifteen
minutes
.”
 
Disconnecting,
Rena drops the
cell
on the ground and
smash
es
it under her heel.

Michael stares in shock at the body of the
man
s
he just executed, questioning whether he really knows
the
woman
he fell in love with
.

Rena
needs
Michael
,
now more than ever.  She needs him to get them out, but first
she needs to cut their leashes.
 
S
tepping
in front of
him, she
grabs
his
face, pulling it to hers, kissing
him passionately
,
as if
it’
s their last
kiss
ever
, knowing it may well be
.
 
It works, he returns to the now, focused.
 
“Michael,
d
o you trust me?”
 
H
er ‘
fierce
’
,
visible
in her eyes.

He looks at her,
clarity lifting his
consternation, and
smiles
,
“
As I said,
With my life …
A
lways.”

“I love you
.
”
Grasping
his hand, looking around the room,
she
guid
es
him
to the bathroom. 
Inside, sh
e
quickly runs
bathwater
.

He watches
her
,
confus
ion his modus operandi for the better part of the last fifteen minutes
.

“It’s
time we sever our ties to our masters
.
”
Removing
the butterfly knife from her boot, flipping and spinning it
, she exposes
the blade
.
“
Michael
,
take off
your
suit.
 
I
need
you
in full combat mode.
”
 
She grabs a towel from the cupboard, tearing it into strips
.

Removing
her right boot, Rena c
heck
s
the water temperature, making sure
it’
s neither warm nor cool
.
Rolling
her right pant leg
up,
past
the knee, she
submerges
her leg into the
tepid bath water
.  Without any
trepidation
,
Rena
slides
the
blade
into the back of her calf,
making a two-inch long incision.
  Her eyes close,
blocking
out the pain.
  Handing the knife to Michael, s
he reaches
back
into the water.  Blood runs from the cut,
crimson
,
swirling
and
mixing
,
staining
the water pink.
  The pain
ed
look on her face intensifies
.

R
ealizing
what
she’s doing
,
Michael
slips off
his
low-cut
boot
,
and
pulls
the lower
leg
of his jumper
up
past his knee
,
just
before
plung
ing
his
foot
into the water.  Using the same knife, he makes
an identical
incision in
the back of
his
calf
,

Relief washing over her face
,
Rena removes
her leg from the bath,
quickly wrapping
it with
a
strip of towel.  She
unrolls her pant leg down
over the bandage and replaces
her boot, effectively applying pressure to the wound
to stop the bleeding
.

Michael
slides
his thumb and
f
orefinger into the incision, t
he pain
excruciating.  Locating
the
tiny
tracking chip
,
he
pr
ies
it from inside his
leg,
and
releas
es
it into the
bloody
water. 
Lifting
his leg from the bathwater and
wrap
ping
it with
a
strip of
towel
, h
e looks at her
, relieved
.

“How does it feel to
have just died?”
She asks
.

“Liberating.”

“The
Bunker
will have
just
witnessed
us flat line, seeing us together, they will think we were captured and executed.  The water will throw them for
an
hour,
maybe more
depending if they
continue to monitor and
how long the water heater hold
s
up,
appearing as if
the chips are still in our bodies.”