Gone Rogue (14 page)

“Thanks to the dead Sherriff for having these in his glove department.”

“May he rest in peace.”  Slade said now seeing why Zach felt like he did the day before.  He must of saw himself in the dead officer’s spot.

“How much you got on that thing?”

“Depends”

“What do you mean it depends?” he asked looking around to see if anyone noticed them yet with having a fire in the middle of nowhere.

“On how much the ATM has at the time?”  Slade answered back rolling his head back and forth to crack his neck.

“So what is the catch?”  Zach was reading Slade like an open book.

“When we use it, it will be like a beacon.”

“I see,” his face started to grin, “it’s been a night of nothing, maybe we can make some excitement.  We need the money.  The Jeep needs some things fixed if we plan on using it this hard.

Slade looked at the Jeep; he didn’t see anything that was wrong with it.  “What are you talking about?”

“I have a plan that might help us.”  That’s all he needed to say.  They didn’t survive their sniper missions and the encounters they have had by doubting each other. 

“I guess I’ll go and find an ATM.” 

“You know, one of these times, you’re going to let me drive.”

“I will make a deal, when I get so injured, and can’t move my legs, or arms I will let you drive.”  He started to crack his knuckles, “remember what happened last time.”  He put his hands up and smiled. 

They walked to each side of the vehicle.  Slade put the car into reverse, and then forward and left the parking lot.

It took only a couple of minutes to hit the metropolis area of the town, and traffic was a problem.  Go and stop, people honked at them for no reason, Slade couldn’t remember being called number one so many times before with hand gestures.

They approached an ATM located by a big bank tower; Slade figured this would have the biggest return for their risk.

"How does it work?"  Zach was about to walk in front of the ATM.  Slade put his hand in front of him and stopped him. 

"The camera on these can take our pictures and send it instantly to the Sanctum.  The magnets imbedded in us don’t make us invisible to everything.  I’m pretty sure also by now they have us on the police most wanted list."  Zach looked around as Slade stood to the side of the machine, and gave a bag to Zach.  He stood on the other side with it.  “I used it yesterday; hopefully that guy’s machine doesn’t send it until Monday since it was the weekend.”

Slade put the card in the machine, and the machine flashed, and then said approved.  The first bundle came out, and Zach put it in the bag.  Another bundle and another bundle came out.  "Dude, how much will this give us?"  Zach started to look like he was robbing the machine with that much money coming out.  It surprised Slade that the people were so into themselves that no one called the police or looked at the giant and the small man standing by an ATM with a big bag full of cash.

"Till the machine runs out."  They stood there for ten minutes until the machine flashed error, saying it ran out of money.  The card shot back out.  Slade was pretty sure they wouldn’t be able to use it again, and tossed it to the sidewalk. 

“It sure would be funny if a civilian picked it up and started to withdraw money from machines everywhere.”  Zach looked at the card with greedy eyes.  Then he looked at the bag "Dude they have like twenty k here.”

“Okay,” Slade started to put a plan in his head, the days of working secretive for so long was about to pay off.  “We need to stretch this money out,” Zach just nodded in agreement, “to get the Jeep ready, how much?”

Zach started to count off his fingers while they started to head back to the Jeep, “I don’t think we need to extend it or put different tires on it, but with the equipment and remodeling of the interior I think it might help us out if we put a little bit more volume on it.”

“Fine, I will take the money I have left, and get that book, the one that told us about the ancient tribe.” 

“We need to stick together, I’ve seen to many movies, where people separated and then someone is kidnapped or killed.”  Zach said looking deep at Slade’s eyes, not knowing what he saw, but something made him nervous.

“Of course,” Slade tried to remember where the library was and if there were any buildings around it.  “I will have you watch the entrance,” Slade remembered yesterday’s ordeal, “Try to shoot the agents before they shoot at us this time though.”

“My thoughts exactly,” he said looking at his Jeep, “I will drop you off and park it away from the library.”

“See, I let you drive.”  Slade said hopping in the passenger seat. 

Zach didn’t hesitate, he just hopped in the driver seat, adjusted the wheel and the seat.  He looked in the back and saw the guns, and pulled out into the busy street.  At the stoplights, Slade could tell the tension was getting greater, and then Zach asked finally “what is the book going to tell us?”

“I don’t have a clue.  Maybe it will have the answers of our fast healing, maybe it will tell us of the kingdom, and maybe it will tell us the secrets of life.  It could tell us nothing, but something was different about that book.  It seemed old, like older than any other book out there.”

He just nodded, “The question is; are we following our father’s footsteps, and going to be killed by doing this?”

Slade saw the pain in his eyes, not knowing how to respond.  His mind raced through the possibility that it might be a trap, a trap set up already by their destiny; maybe they would both die in vane.  “I am not dying without taking them down with me!”  Slade said aloud not to just convince Zach, but to convince him as well.

***

Slade stood in the shadows of the buildings across from the library staring where he was kicked out of earlier.  He was also giving Zach time to get in position.  Slade studied the movements in the building; nothing seemed alarming in the building, no agents, no set up.

At least at first it didn’t seem different, but then Slade saw the black car with its all tinted windows parked to the side of the building, hiding in the shadows as he was.  No one seemed to be in the car, they were in the library, which threw a roadblock in his plans.  He was glad he didn’t go just crashing in at his first glance, they were here and waiting.  If he went in there and that woman started to yell at him, the agents would see him.  He couldn’t risk that problem; he had to find another way around the dilemma.

His mind rushed through different solutions, but all of them ended with a huge shoot out.  That caused many deaths that he wasn’t going to give to the Sanctum anymore.  Every time he thought of that, his necklace seemed to burn on his collarbone, and he had to tell himself no innocent people were going to die from the actions.  He was about to walk to where Zach was suppose to be on top of the building scoping the entrance out.  Ready to forget the plan he started to walk, when his necklace seemed to pull him back to the library.

“I can’t get the book,” he said to himself and then he saw a girl that appeared to be hanging around the library.  A thought came to him, what if he could convince a bystander to get the book for him.  Everybody could be bought, and this would avoid a shoot out.  The necklace burned and pulled to the woman.  He started to walk to her, something about her made him nervous.  Slade knew it couldn’t have been such a small woman causing his nerves to ratter but the agents making him nervous. 

Her shoulder length hair curled at the ends.  It was a dark brown almost black in color.  Her skin was pale showing that she lived in a city all her life.  Her lips red, her eyes seemed red when he started to walk up to her.  She was wearing a white tank top with a blue soft fabric vest on.  Her blue jeans were tight and tucked into her knee length black boots.

His necklace seemed to fade, as they got closer.  Before he was within ten feet of her, she turned and stared at him sense his presence.  His first impression was that she had the most evil, hatred eyes he had ever seen, a glare of death that only a woman could achieve.   Then it was wild, and then beauty, a beauty that he never seen in another woman before.  It was a strong sense, something crossed between what he saw in the dragon and…  He stopped thinking, again he was comparing to the damn dragon.  A dragon that had his mind in wrong place, a dragon that was going to kill him before they met again.

“Sorry mam, but I am in a pickle.”  Her expression went soft, and almost too helpful for his taste.  “Could you go in the Library and grab a book for me, I can’t go in there, the” shit he needed a reason instead of saying he was kicked out. 

He sure, as hell couldn’t tell her, those guys in there are secret agents and they want him dead.  He wanted them dead for the safety of the world.  “I’m allergic to their carpet.”  He wanted to hit himself in the head for that, but one thing he learned about lying is to just believe it yourself which is actually dangerous, because you can’t tell the difference later on.

“Allergic to the carpet?”  She asked scratching her head, “I guess, I could help you, but you must help me.”

“Sure, anything,” he guessed some strangers still believed in helping another person.

“Take me on a date,” making Slade want to run away.  She was hot, very hot, but he wasn’t planning a date.  Again, his massive size didn’t get him laid much, maybe he should.  A one-night fuck wouldn’t hurt him would it?  Zach would do it in a heartbeat.

“I would love to, but,” he paused, for a second, “my cousin and I are on a tight schedule though.”  He would be damned; he was able to refuse an easy fuck unlike his brother.

“Then no book.”  Shit, she was playing him like, well he guessed like he was doing to her.

“Fine, it’s a deal; dinner for us, after the book is in my hands.”  He gritted his teeth.  He then described the book to her; she was off entering the library.  Shit he could just blow her off, she would never know.  Even is she did try to stop him, Zach could bale him out of it.   He could take the book before the men realized it was him outside the library using the poor girl.  

Preparation didn’t prepare him to accept a date.  He was in a bind, a drama that unfolds from the date.  He had no choice, or did he? 
Was there another way around it
he asked himself?  After assuring there wasn’t he took, a sigh of relief knowing it was going to work.

Slade checked his watch; time seemed to slow down, as he paced in front of the library, as the agents searched inside the library not a threat to him outside of the library.  Slade looked up on a tower and saw Zach sitting there watching him or rather the reflection from the sun on the scope. 
That idiot is visible; we will have to work on that part,
he thought in his head.

He started to wonder if he saw the girl too, shit if they were in different places Zach would had the girl bent over the agent’s car pounding into her.  The door opened, Slade jerked his head to the door, but only the girl came out with the precise book.  She was about to hand it to him and stopped mid motion as the doors bolted open.

The agents, the girl, and Slade stared at each other; before any actions could be taken, an agent growled out, “Slade.”  Slade could tell he was in shock, which meant that the lodestone necklace imbedded in their skin was working. 

Slade smiled at him, “I know you guys missed me,” how could they have been in so much shock, did they not get the ATM transaction.

“You’re a fool for not leaving town after you emptied the ATM.  At least we don’t have a missing card like the team thought.”  Slade smiled at that, only if they knew the card was out there for anybody’s use.

He didn’t answer as he watched more and more agents crowd the entrance, the leader’s hands going slowly to his sidearm on his side.  “I wouldn’t, you will be shot in the head before you even get the gun up in the air.”  The agent looked around, and then looked up the building at the end of the street; he must have seen Zach was up there because he nodded.

He walked closer to me, and looked at the book; Slade grabbed it from the girl during the rush of agents.  “That book shouldn’t exist.  Hand it over.”

“Why?”  He asked with the most cockiness expression he could give, “Let me guess so you can find out if others like us exist.”  The agent laughed so hard that Slade became worried, was he too late to find others like him.

“You have no clue,” and to his surprise, they all drew their guns out and began firing at them, making Slade dive, taking cover behind a statue.  One agent shot towards Zach.  Slade prayed they weren’t that good of a shot; the bullet flew at him glazing his cheek when he tried to find an opening.  The agents began to run toward him.  He heard another shot that sounded familiar. 

An agent fell to the ground.  He would have laughed at their pathetic attempt at shooting at them, if he didn’t have bullets flying every direction.  Slade looked at the girl who didn’t even shriek, she just laid there with a bullet hole through her shoulder.  Her pulse looked strong; her bleeding strong enough that Slade took his coat off and tied it around her shoulder clotting blood in the hole that went all the way through.  She too was able to take cover; Slade withdrew the KRISS from his coat, and started to fire shots back at them.  Bullets flying between them like a turf war.  Slade couldn’t tell the noises apart anymore from the screams of the civilians to the shots being fired as his ears began to ring.