Patriots & Tyrants (Rebels & Lies Trilogy Book 2) (25 page)

The gun was in perfect
sync now with Sullivan’s forehead. Sullivan just froze, not sure of what to do,
and X started to stand and go at Kaspar. Kaspar didn’t see him. His focus was
still solely on the man in the chair. It all started on that fateful morning so
many months ago. The Agent in front of him led a raid that ended the life of
Mother. The little boy wasn’t there anymore to stop him. There was nothing to
stop him. Nothing but his own nerves could stop him now.

He was about to pull
the trigger when a hard punch to the cheek from X knocked him off his feet.
Everything started to go blurry while the room spun around him. Kaspar blinked
once and tried to get his bearings back. Once the room stopped its spin a gun
was now in
his
face. X stood in a perfect position over him to fire.
Kaspar tried to get up but was met with a kick to the chest from X.

“Whoa, whoa.” Harvey
cried from the coffee pot. His Glock was now pointed at X. “Drop that weapon,
comrade.”

“No.” X replied. “Not
until he explains what the hell is going on.”

“I said drop it. He’s
cool.”

There was now a crowd
gathered around from all the commotion. Kaspar still hadn’t come to, yet, and
now X could feel the barrel of a gun against the back of his skull. Buck’s hand
shook, but he now had a good shot at the former gangster if push came to shove.
Harvey gave him a look of disapproval and motioned with his head for his son to
step aside. Buck shook his head and then moved his eyes to the target. Statue,
who managed to sneak back inside once the commotion started, pointed his gun to
the side of Buck’s head. Buck saw him out the corner of his eye and froze.

“Don’t you point that
gun at him!” Harvey cried.

“Tell him to stand
down, then.” Statue commanded.

“Son, Goddamn it, drop
your weapon!”

Buck did so and then,
with his head straight to the ground, walked away. Statue focused the aim of
his gun now on Harvey. Harvey watched it all unfold and it seemed like a bad
dream. The resistance was about to embark on the biggest mission of their
existence and all they were doing now was in fighting. The leftover couldn’t
help but wonder what Kaspar’s beef was with the youngster who just sat there,
shocked as all hell. He figured that all would be revealed soon enough.

“What the fuck’s your
problem, kid?” X demanded.

Kaspar rubbed at his
eyes as his senses started to return to him. Once again, it seemed that Sullivan
would get away with murder. He was just glad that he was still breathing at
this point. That hulk who nearly knocked him out could have ended this whole
thing right away, but spared him. Kaspar then began to remember Mother once
more and his attempt to rise was again met with a boot to the chest.

“He killed my mother…”
Kaspar managed to get out. “In cold blood.”

“What?” Sullivan
asked.

Kaspar turned his
attention to Sullivan. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

“No.”

“Of course not, how
could you?” Kaspar started to rise and he was allowed to sit upright on the
floor now. X’s gun still aimed at his head. “I was in disguise and your son
jumped in front of you.”

The realization hit
Sullivan like a runaway freight train. How could it be? He remembered that
night well. That was the night that he should have died. His son saved him that
night. But now, Davie was taken by the very people who used to employ him. It
was that night when he began to rethink what he did for a living; to rethink
about whose side was the right side. Now, this man was back, ready to kill him
without hesitation. If hadn’t been for X, he’d be dead without question. No
amount of talking could calm Kaspar down, so he just went silent.

“You’re just lucky
your son got in my way.” Kaspar said.

“Look,” Sullivan said.
He was now standing and held both hands in front of him. “I know how you must
feel. I remember that operation, but I tried to reason with your mother. I
tried to bring her in. It was my partners who…”

“Bullshit!” Kaspar cried.
“You were in the room, you’re just as guilty.”

“Okay,” Harvey said
from behind. “Ryan, you just calm down now.”

“Calm down? How do you
expect me to do that?”

“For your own sake…”

“No, it’s okay,”
Sullivan said as he backpedaled at a slow pace . “He has the right to be
upset.”

“What are you even
doing here?” Kaspar demanded.

“My son was kidnapped
by the government…I just want to find out where he is.”

“So, you want to use
us?”

“If that’s how you
want to look at it. X, come on, let’s go.”

X and Statue dropped
their weapons. Harvey did the same from behind Kaspar. He also walked over to
Kaspar’s dropped P99 and picked it up. Kaspar fought back every urge inside to
get straight up and, even if it resulted in his own death, try to break
Sullivan’s neck first. X and Statue quickly escorted the former Agent out of
the lobby into one of the back rooms.

Kaspar just sat on his
ass and looked around. He noticed Clarke walking towards them with a limp. It
took a moment for Kaspar to remember that he had shoved the poor wizard to the
ground just minutes ago. One of the rebels who picked up Clarke’s glasses from
off the floor handed them to him. Kaspar felt a guilt inside that he hadn’t
felt in a long time. The man who he had shoved to the ground was his friend…and
Krys’s. He wondered in that moment if his anger was always going to be a
hindrance to him.

“You okay, Robert?”
Kaspar asked, still seated.

“I’m…fine, Ryan.”
Clarke replied.

“I’m sorry, man. My
anger…his face…I just couldn’t hold back.”

“It’s okay.”

“No!” Kaspar shouted.
He picked himself up off the ground then looked in his friend’s eyes. “It’s not
okay!”

“Look, I understand…”

“How could you? That
man…he killed my mother…”

“I can understand.”
Clarke shot back in a stern tone.

Kaspar nodded. “I’m
just going to…go outside for a breather.”

This set of make shift
barracks was just as dark as the last set. There was just enough moonlight from
the clear night sky on the outside through the windows to make out faces. All
of the rebels were snug in their bunks. For most of them, it had been a long
trip to this makeshift military complex. Kaspar looked around with his P99 held
tight in his right hand. He had managed to not only sneak out of his own
barrack unseen but he managed to sneak around three other sleeping quarters
without waking a soul.

The hunt was about to
be over. In the far left corner he found his prey. Kaspar walked over to the
top of the bunk and fought back his heavy breathing. After going undetected for
so long, it would be a hell of a time to fold now and get caught. He trained
his gun on Sullivan’s head, just like he did earlier, only this time there
would be no wavering. He would finish the job that he had twice failed to
finish. After he blinked his eyes several times, he pulled the trigger of his
gun repeatedly. The loud banging sounds from the gun shook the others out of
their sleep. Kaspar kept firing as other rebels tried to grab him and pull him
away. One rebel hooked him under his outstretched arm. Kaspar just pulled the
trigger faster. He fired until his mag ran dry…

Kaspar’s head shot up
in a fury as he gasped for breath. With heavy breathing he looked around at his
surroundings. It was all a dream. He had been lying in his bunk the whole time.
There were two warring feelings inside of him as his bare feet hit the cold
tile floor. The most dominant of the feelings was that of disappointment. He
wished deep down that the dream wasn’t a dream at all. However, he also felt a
sense of relief. That lust for revenge, he had thought, was gone that night he
let Sullivan live. It seemed that all he did was run away from those urges.
Now, when that son of a bitch was staring right at him, the need for vengeance
came roaring back from the recesses of his brain.

Next to the edge of
his bunk sat his slippers. Kaspar forced his feet into them and then stood from
the bed. He stretched his back and yawned. Just like in the dream, the other
rebels were all cozy in their bunks, sleeping away after a long day of
traveling. Despite the bunk being the most comfortable bed he slept in for
months, the anxiety inside of having Mother’s killer running loose within the
complex disallowed any kind of peaceful sleep. He reached for the white T-Shirt
which hung from the metal post and slipped it on.

There wasn’t much else
to do, so he quietly walked out of the sleeping quarters and walked straight
for the lobby. He hoped on the way there that the Agent wouldn’t be in the
lobby and force him to do something he would regret later. Instead of Sullivan,
there was another familiar face sitting in the lobby. It was that of his friend
Clarke. Kaspar still felt guilty for shoving the computer nerd out of his way,
but he couldn’t take that back, so he tried not to dwell on it for too long.

“Hey, Mr. Wizard,” Kaspar
said.

“What are you doing up
so late?” Clarke asked without looking up from his computer screen.

“Nice to see you, too.
How’s that ankle?”

“It’s fine.”

Kaspar walked over to
the water cooler, which sat next to the coffee pot. After several seconds, his
Styrofoam cup was almost to the brim with ice cold water. He took the cup and
sat at the table next to Clarke. The two didn’t speak for several moments,
neither really knowing what to say. Kaspar wondered if deep down Clarke was
just pissed off at him for that moment earlier. Then, he saw the leftover still
staring intently at his computer screen, he seemed to be closed off to the rest
of the world.

“What are you doing on
there?” Kaspar wondered.

“Just waiting,” Clarke
replied.

“What for?”

“The USR’s next move.
They’ve been rounding up men all over the country.”

“For what purpose?”
Kaspar wondered again.

“I’m not sure, yet.
But, they are using us to justify it. That attack that they initiated on the
compound…well, you know what happened…but they are using that to call the
military in. That, and those suspected rebels they killed.”

“Initiate Martial Law.
Let me ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

Kaspar sipped at his
water. “If we weren’t around, do you think that they would be as aggressive as
they are?”

“Of course they would.
If not us, they would use something else. It’s in their nature to control.”

“I just can’t help but
think that we are doing more harm than good, you know? We sure as hell aren’t
winning.”

Clarke shut the lid of
the laptop, took off his glasses, and then rubbed at his tired, red eyes. “I’ve
always had the attitude that it’s never been just about winning.”

“What’s it about,
then?”

“It’s about just
fighting. Fighting for what you know is right. If you do that, it doesn’t matter
if you win. Just letting the USR run wild, doing the things they do, that’s
never an option.”

“But,” Kaspar said,
“if we don’t win, then what does that mean for the friends we’ve lost?”

“If we fight until we
die, then they wouldn’t have died in vain, even if we lose. We can keep their
spirit alive by continuing the fight. Listen, John was so fixated on winning
that it made him do things he normally wouldn’t. He had this hope that we
could, somehow, some day, win. I never shared that sentiment.”

“Do you have no hope?”

“Hope is different
from reality. I do hope that we will win, but I’m not going to lie to myself,
either.”

Kaspar took a sip of
his water and thought on what Clarke was saying. The leftover was a smart
individual and he had never heard him talk like this before. Hoping for a
victory that you never attain, that was something that he couldn’t live with,
victory was all that mattered. And, considering that victory was a minute
possibility, there was no point in hoping. Hope didn’t save Krys, it didn’t
save America, and wouldn’t bring a victory to the resistance. The USR, in all
likelihood, would continue its reign long after Kaspar and Clarke were dead.
Hoping for a different outcome wouldn’t change that, either. No, Kaspar had
given up on hope the second that Krys died.

“We have lost a lot of
friends, though.” Clarke said as he readjusted his glasses.

“We’re the last two.”
Kaspar replied.

Clarke pointed to his
laptop. “You know, I’ve lived my whole life on those things.”

“What, computers?”

“Yes. While my peers
were out partying, drinking, doing whatever, I’d be hiding out in my room,
trying to figure out every nuance of the computer. I got pretty good, too.”

“You regret it or
something?” Kaspar asked, not knowing what else to say.

“Sometimes, yes. When
I think about our friends, I was too weak, too ignorant in combat situations
that I couldn’t help. That night, when you guys raided that lab, was one the
worst of my life. Watching, listening, observing. That was all I could do.”

“Hey, it’s all right,
man. Not everyone’s built for combat.”

“I guess you’re
right.”

“We wouldn’t have made
it far without the Intel that you provided, and continue to provide. Using that
computer, you might feel solitary, but we’ve got to get information somehow. And,
we’ve got to have a Wizard watching our ass.”

Clarke smiled along
with Kaspar. “Thanks, Ryan.”

“And, Robert, I’m
sorry about earlier. I let my anger get in my way again.”

“No worries. Do you
buy that guy’s story, though?”

Kaspar shook his head.
“I don’t know what to believe. All I know is that he better stay out of my way
when we hit the battlefield. Friendly fire is a bitch, I’ve heard.”

“Are you being
serious?” Clarke asked with a concerned tone.

“I meant nothing, just
forget I said anything.”

“Okay. Ryan?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t do anything
stupid. Our next mission is more important than getting revenge.”

“So you say.”

Clarke grabbed at his
laptop, “Well, I better get to bed. I’ve got a busy morning tomorrow.”

“How so?”

“I’ve got to give a
presentation to the others tomorrow on the importance of gathering information
from that building and not just raising the flag.”

Kaspar rubbed at his
eyes, “They don’t think it’s important?”

“They do, they just
don’t think it’s as important as they should. I’ve got to convince them
otherwise.”

“Okay, well, good luck
with that.” Kaspar rose from his chair then walked towards the sleeping
quarters. “Have a good night.”

“You, too.”