Evenfall (126 page)

The four of them disappeared from the room before Archer finally released him from the hold, giving him a serious look. Boyd didn't even notice; the second he was free he started to run after them. He needed to be near Sin, to tell himself that even if he had let him down, betrayed him, abandoned him, he was at least there for him now. He could at least try to make amends somehow, help heal him, help stabilize him. Just...
help
him.

Behind him, he barely heard Archer make a disgusted noise before he was suddenly yanked back by his upper arm. Boyd didn't realize at first what had happened; he tried to rush forward again but Archer did not so much as shift and all that happened was his shoulder hurt.

He rounded on Archer with a glare, demanding coldly, "
What?
"

Archer gave him an entirely unimpressed look and, holding him by the upper arm, dragged him along at his side. "How did you ever get to be Rank 9 if you can't even follow a simple order?"

He was sick of being pushed around and held back. Sick of them acting like he was an incompetent idiot. "Just let me fucking--"

"No," Archer said unwaveringly, not even bothering to let him finish the sentence. He turned a serious, hawk-like stare on him. "And shut up." Boyd's eyes narrowed but before he could say anything, Archer just gave him a look that clearly said, 'Do you really want to try me?'

Boyd stared at him for one long moment before he looked away silently, fingers curling into fists and teeth gritting as he let himself be led to the van like a child.

By the time they got to the vehicle, the other four had folded all of the back seats down to give enough room for the gurney in the center. Kassian and Michael were sitting by Sin's head while Harriet crouched at his side, already concentrating on stitching one of his nastier wounds. Blair sat at his feet, just shutting the back doors as Boyd and Archer arrived. Seeing that there was enough space for one more to squeeze in, Boyd automatically tried to go for the back doors but Archer just pulled him toward the front without even bothering to look over.

"What are you doing?" Boyd asked, staring through the windshield toward the back of the van as Archer calmly led him around the front toward the passenger door.

He could see them all crouched around Sin and he wanted to be back there with them. It didn't make sense not to have all the available help working with Sin. He was in terrible condition; they needed as many people working on him as possible until they could get him to a more stabilized location.

"I've had my med training; I can help Harriet." Archer didn't reply; he just reached for the passenger door. Boyd narrowed his eyes, following the movement of his hand, and said as indignation started to war with annoyance and worry, "I know what I'm fucking doing, I won't be in the way!"

Archer met his gaze and held it as he opened the door and shoved him unceremoniously inside. Boyd landed awkwardly on the seat and while he was still trying to get his balance, Archer yanked him forward and within seconds, with the quick, practiced movement of someone who has done this before, he flexicuffed Boyd to the hand-hold above the door.

Boyd stared in disbelief at his hands and then looked at Archer with an angry, "Archer, what the fuck!" "I have plenty of tape for a gag," Archer informed him before shutting the door firmly in his face.

Boyd watched Archer in growing anger as the man walked around the front of the van and calmly got into the driver's seat, reaching back only long enough to get the keys from Kassian. Boyd yanked on the restraints but it only dug the plastic into his wrists painfully and the hand hold didn't budge at all.

He didn't know what the hell their problem was but it aggravated him that they kept ignoring him, acting like he couldn't do anything right. Like he'd just get in the way. Did they seriously think he'd jeopardize Sin's safety by acting like an idiot, delaying any medical help he could receive? He just wanted to be back there with him, that was all! He just wanted to touch him and reassure himself that it was true, he was alive, even if earlier it hadn't seemed possible.

He'd touched his face. He was so cold, so still, like a marble statue thrown carelessly to the side and not at all like the person he'd grown used to being around. The person he'd been intimate with and the person whose touch had left fire in its wake.

Archer turned the key in the ignition and, ignoring Boyd completely, he put the van in gear and drove quickly down the street. Boyd pulled on the flexicuffs once more, irritated that Archer had chosen something that made it impossible for him to escape.

He gave Archer a cold look before he twisted awkwardly to look behind him. At least he could still see Sin from this position, even if his view was occasionally blocked by Kassian's back. He listened to what they were saying, trying to get an idea of Sin's condition.

"--trip is eight hours," Harriet was saying. "I don't think he'll last that long. His pulse is so weak, I can still barely feel it and who knows what kind of internal injuries he has? We don't have the equipment to properly care for him." She hovered over his torso, hands steadily stitching a long, wide gash in his side that appeared incredibly deep.

Kassian rubbed his chin and stared down at Sin in aggravation. "He isn't at all responsive. He doesn't react to anything. It's possible he isn't even mentally efficient anymore, depending on the level of head trauma." He pointed at the nearly black bruises that stained the otherwise pale skin of his head. "But we can't just take him to any medical facility. They'll ask questions and we don't need questions. We'll have to wait until we're with our people."

The thought that Sin could have been found while still alive but it was still too late, that he was already too far gone and would never recover or would never even make it through the rescue, was a terrifying thought. Boyd quickly ran through every medical facility he could think of in the city, but unfortunately that was one area he hadn't been able to get any contacts in.

Jorge knew next to nothing of the underground doctors and all that Boyd had managed to discover pointed to them all being the kind that went to the highest price or already were in the jurisdiction of smuggling or other black market groups that wouldn't appreciate anyone going into their territory. It had been something he had felt was a loose end as he'd gone into the two week hiding period, but he'd been hoping it wouldn't come up. As it was, he couldn't think of anyone in Monterrey that would be able to help them without delaying the matter even longer than it would be if they just kept driving.

But if they didn't get Sin help soon...Michael watched the scene with what seemed to be growing uneasiness as Kassian began performing simple tests to see if Sin would respond. Sin didn't even give the slightest of twitches, his eyes never once moving under his eyelids.

"Um..." Michael frowned and glanced at the others hesitantly. "What if he actually
does
wake up?" he asked slowly.

Kassian looked up at him with a strange expression. "Then we know he isn't brain damaged."

"Um..." Michael hesitated again and glanced at Boyd quickly before saying in a rush, "But shouldn't we restrain him in case that happens?"

There was a long silence and both Kassian and Harriet paused in their actions to give him incredulous looks. "
What
?"

Michael shifted and wet his lips, looking both uncomfortable and determined as he glanced down at Sin in something akin to fear. "I mean I know he's in bad shape right now but does that really mean we should forget who we're dealing with? This guy is insane and prone to snap. Who knows what will happen when he wakes up and is all delirious? He'll probably kill us all!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Boyd could see Archer nodding once, as if he agreed with the reasoning. Boyd's eyes narrowed but he didn't get the chance to say anything.

Kassian stared at Michael as if he were the biggest idiot he'd ever seen. "The man can't fucking move," he said in a low, warning voice. "How the hell do you expect he'll manage to kill us all?"

"How does he manage to do anything they say he does?" Michael countered stubbornly. "How does he manage to wipe out entire bases and make it out alive with a bunch of injuries? How did he manage to kill all of those guard captains when he was surrounded by them and being sent to the fourth? I mean, I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but I just don't think we should forget about what this guy is really all about just because he's injured."

There was another silence and Harriet shook her head and began stitching him again but Kassian continued to stare at Michael. "You are an idiot."

He looked down dismissively and focused on another grotesque gash in Sin's other side-- it was just as deep as the one Harriet worked on and in exactly the same place on the opposite side. Tissue and meat hung out of it and Kassian grabbed the tools for stitching out of the pack.

"I don't care what 'they' say he does. He's still a man and he's still an agent and I'm not going to treat him like a wild dog just because you think he's the boogeyman."

"Even if he could move," Boyd added edgily, "he's not a mass-murdering psychopath. He'll recognize Kassian--"

"Senior Agent Trovosky," Archer corrected him without looking away from the road.

He spared Archer a cold glance then pulled at his restraints as he twisted to look at the others in back. "And if you'd just fucking let me back there, he'll recognize me too." Kassian didn't spare Boyd a glance or respond to the comment as he worked calmly, not bothering to put on gloves as Harriet did and effectively getting his fingers covered in blood. "I am very aware of the threat he can become if he is provoked-- but that is if he is provoked. One, it is highly doubtful that he is going to wake up any time soon, if at all, and two, if he did he would be more likely to regale us with examples of his stunning sense of sarcasm than attack us. However if he does for some reason snap out of what appears to be a coma in a violent, delirious rage, we will then restrain him to prevent him from injuring us or himself."

He glanced up at Michael. "Feel better now?" His tone wasn't mocking but it was obvious that the comment was meant to mock.

Michael shrugged, still looking uneasy, and glanced up at Archer although he said nothing more. Blair didn't comment on the conversation and instead peered out the back window to ensure that they were not being followed. Although no Janus operatives had been present at the site, it was entirely possible that someone could have been watching it from a distance depending on how long ago they'd abandoned it.

There was another long silence as they continued to work and Boyd watched everything intently, not bothering to speak since they weren't listening to him anyway. His heartbeat and adrenaline still seemed too high, too quick, and he kept darting his gaze back up to Sin's eyes, hoping for some sense of movement but never seeing any.

When Harriet finally finished stitching, she sat up partially and surveyed his body to decide which wound warranted the most attention first. There were severe burn marks that appeared to be oozing pus as well as many other deep lacerations.

"You know," she began mildly. "I'd never seen him in person before. He's not what I expected."

Kassian raised an eyebrow, not looking up. "And what did you expect?"

She shrugged and poked at Sin's legs. "We're going to need to flip him over, he has severe lacerations under both knees." She watched Kassian for a moment, waiting for him to finish. "And I don't know what I expected." Her eyes flicked over to Sin's face, skimming over his full lips, long eyelashes and straight nose before they followed the length of his lanky, muscular body. "Perhaps for him not to look so young and attractive? From all the stories it seemed that he'd look older, meaner."

Kassian snorted but it was Michael who spoke up. "He does look mean. He's all strange-looking in my opinion with those freakish, creepy green eyes."

"Can we stop making Vega out to be some mythical creature already?" Kassian snapped suddenly, seeming more than a little irritated by the direction the conversation was going in. "He's just a fucking man like everyone else and he gets his features from his father who was anything but freakish and creepy. Now change the subject or shut up."

The van fell silent for a few moments and Boyd was uncomfortable enough staying twisted around that he turned to sit normally in his seat, staring out the windows blankly. Kassian had moved just enough that he'd been partially blocking his view of Sin so it wasn't like he could see much anyway. And just staring at Sin without being able to reach him was starting to wear on him, as were the conversations they were having around him.

He was glad that Kassian kept calling Sin a man rather than some sort of monster, that someone at least seemed intent on defending him to some extent since he really couldn't with them ignoring him. He could also tell that Kassian and Harriet knew what they were doing, so he at least knew Sin was getting the best treatment he could under the circumstances.

A passing building caught Boyd's eye and his eyebrows drew down. He sat up straight to peer out his window before turning toward the front again, searching the nearby streets. He knew this area but it didn't seem a particularly good direction to be driving when they were trying to escape notice. Four blocks away was one of the main stations for the Police Department, and two down from that was a building that housed some sort of activity he had never fully identified but he did know was official as well as secret.