Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (78 page)

“How
am I supposed to forget about her Nick?” Amy glared at him and asked how he
would feel if it were her. “I’d be a different story, wouldn’t it?”

“Of
course,” Nick told her.

“Well
it shouldn’t be,” she chastised him. “I mean, she probably has someone out
there who’s worried to death about her just as much as you would be if I was
the one who was kidnapped.”

Nick
looked away from her and said he hadn’t thought of it like that. He took
another drink of his water and tried to let the conversation die out.

Amy
persisted however and asked what he would do if she was the one kidnapped.
“We’ve only known each other for a month, so what would you do?”

“What
could I do?”

“Would
you pour all the energy you use to try to avenge your brother into trying to
find me?”

“Of
course.”

She
examined him and muttered that he only said it to make her feel better.

“Why
would you say that?” Nick snapped. “Of course I would want to find you. I
would. I just don’t know how I could find you.”

“What
about your private detective friend?”

Nick
said he wouldn’t be of any use. “We had a disagreement and he won’t help me
anymore.”

Amy
tilted her head to the side and asked what the disagreement was about. Nick
only told her it didn’t matter, but that he wouldn’t be able to look for his
brother’s killer anymore.

“It’s
probably too late anyway,” he mumbled.

Their
waitress brought them a small wire basket with half a dozen breadsticks in it,
along with two small saucers and two different dipping sauces to accompany
their appetizer.

The
server left and Amy didn’t hesitate to pick their conversation up from where
they’d left it. “So you’re all alone now?”

He
glanced up at her and asked what she meant. “I’ve got you, don’t I?”

Amy
smiled, joined hands with him, laced their fingers together, rubbed the back of
his hand with her thumb, and told him that she loved him. Nick told her he
loved her too shortly before his date’s physical appearance shifted from that
of his girlfriend to his stepfather.

Nick
felt himself freeze in place. He watched as Paul let go of his hand, took a
breadstick out of the basket, took a bite, and asked where Lauren was.

By
the time Nick ignored his racing pulse and formed a dull-black Smith and Wesson
in his right hand, Paul returned to the form of Nick’s girlfriend and let out a
terrified shriek that alerted the entire restaurant to his situation with the
firearm. Unfortunately for Nick, he didn’t see though the diversion and his
petite Amy turned back into Paul, who flipped their table over on top of Nick
and fled the scene. Nick let his weapon vanish into a cloud of smoke, pushed the
table off of him, and chased after his stepfather.

Paul
was well out of the parking lot in Amy’s car by the time Nick reached the door,
but in a brief moment Nick revved his motorcycle up and gave chase as he
ignored traffic conditions and laws entirely. Nick hadn’t even remembered to
grab his helmet from off the floor next to their table, but didn’t concern
himself with his safety as he pursued the charlatan toward the Seattle Center.
The charlatan continued to change direction and took turns so suddenly Nick had
a hard time keeping up. Nick missed the turn Paul made into a small movie
theater lot and by the time Nick returned he only saw Amy’s red car, parked in
the center of the lot with the engine still running.

He
left his motorcycle on the sidewalk, created an onyx Daewoo K5, and quietly
approached the car. A song,
Never the Machine Forever
, blared from the
stereo of Amy’s car. The windows were down, keys in the ignition, but the
charlatan was nowhere in sight. Nick ran to the sidewalk in search of his
stepfather among the passersby but failed to locate the charlatan.

A
sudden explosion launched Nick from off his feet and into the street. He turned
and found Amy’s car completely in flames with debris from the blast raining
down onto the nearby vehicles. Car alarms throughout the lot rang out and
through the added commotion of the pedestrians who also witnessed the blast
Nick heard a man laughing.

Nick
ran toward cover behind another vehicle in the lot and hoped he’d managed to
vanish before his foe noticed him, though he worried other cars were also
rigged to detonate. A thin blue MP3 player slid under the car Nick used for
cover and tapped the side of his foot. He looked down and saw that
Here
Comes Your Man
played. Nick failed to react as quickly as he should have
and as a consequence the explosion caught and threw him into the middle of the
lot before he could fully escape. The shrapnel didn’t affect him but he was
burned by the fire from the blast. The concussive force from the eruption dazed
him as well.

Further
explosions destroyed the roads which surrounded the city block and the
entrances to the parking lot. Another car exploded and amidst the screams and
panic Nick heard his name called out. Nick picked himself up and looked about
the carnage to find his opponent. Jeremy Dalton stood with his back against the
brick wall of the movie theater. He wore his usual attire and held a few of his
shuriken in his right hand and a thin silver MP3 player in his left hand.

Dalton
pressed the center button on his device and all of the car alarms in the
parking lot stopped wailing. He pressed another and the car nearest Nick began
to play
Rocket Skates
. Nick didn’t stick around to let the vehicle
explode but found it was merely a diversion for another bomb to detonate near
him. The blast launched Nick into another vehicle where Nick landed awkwardly
on his left arm and dashed his face into the ground. He pulled himself together
and tried to find cover when Dalton called out to him.

“This
can end wheneva ya’d like to kid.” Dalton knew precisely where Nick was among
the wreckage and chaos. Nick tried to hide, but could hardly bring himself to
run. “All I need ta know is where yer hidin’ lil’ Miss Lauren Facet.”

Nick
took the opportunity to catch his breath and reclaim some of his sense before
he contemplated the situation. He coughed for a moment, from the smoke he’d
inhaled crossed with his lack of oxygen, and then asked where Amy was.

Dalton
said he’d hidden her. “My associate and I needed ta have some sorta incentive
ta convince ya ta make tha trade, othawise ya’d just try ta fight and be
nothin’ more than a thorn in our collective side.”

“What
are you saying?”

Dalton
sighed and blatantly told Nick it was a trade. “We’ll give ya yer gal pal back
if ya agree ta pass yer foreign friend along ta us.”

Nick
tried to use his left arm and felt a sharp pain shoot from his elbow up to his
hand. He also did his best to count his teeth and spit out the blood from his
mouth. “I’m not going to give her to you, Dalton.”

The
assassin nodded and took a deep breath before he informed Nick that the
alternative path was laden with pain and woe. “We’ll get tha answers we’re
lookin’ for one way or anotha. It really all depends on how much ya wanna suffa
or how ya wanna benefit from this.”

Nick
shook his head and created a dull-black CZ 110 in his right hand. “You haven’t
got any intent of letting me leave here. If you did you wouldn’t have rigged
all of these cars to kill me.”

Dalton
cracked a smile and told him he was right. “Either way, ya mind tellin’ me so I
don’t havta ruin a perfectly fine pair of clothes with tha whole torture bit?
Because believe me, there’re ‘bout a thousand things I’d ratha do than spend an
evenin’ extortin’ info outta you.”

“I’m
not going to betray her.”

“Oh?
And what about yer loyalties ta Amy?”

Nick
fell silent and listened for Dalton to continue while he crept toward the end
of the car he used as cover to see if he could get a clear shot at his foe. By
the time he reached the front of the vehicle and peered down the lot he’d lost
Dalton.

“Done
talkin’?” Dalton asked from behind him.

Nick
whipped around to take aim but Dalton swiftly kicked him in the right side of
his ribs and then square in his chest. Nick dropped his gun but Dalton didn’t
pay any heed to where the gun may have gone. The assassin didn’t hesitate to
seize Nick by his shirt and then tightly wrap a set of black earbuds around
Nick’s throat.

Dalton
held Nick resolutely and grinned while Nick struggled vainly to break free. The
young man tried to attack his assailant but none of his tactics proved
fruitful. In fact, his thrashing about caused him to lose his energy faster and
Dalton noticed it as well.

“Is
this it?” Dalton asked rhetorically. “I woulda thought Strom might have taught
ya somethin’ ta make this fight interestin’, but I guess not.”

Nick
finally released his grip on the cord around his neck and created a cobalt
Kimber Eclipse in his left hand, which he immediately pressed against Dalton’s
forehead. The killer smirked and tried to steal the weapon from Nick, but only
lost his grasp on the earbuds around Nick’s throat and gained a fistful of
smoke. Nick whipped his head back and broke his foe’s nose which granted Nick
freedom. He recreated the Kimber Eclipse and took true aim at Dalton, who stood
only seven feet away from him after Nick backed up a few paces.

Jeremy
Dalton held his broken nose with his right hand and glared at Nick. He lost his
fake southern accent and cursed Nick for breaking his nose. “You piece of shit.
I ought to–”

Nick
cut him off when he shot the assassin twice, once in each of his arms near his
shoulders. He proceeded to walk up to the man, took him by the neck, and threw
him to the pavement.

Dalton
swore, but only briefly enough to allow Nick the moment he needed to stick the
barrel of his gun into the killer’s mouth. Nick breathlessly demanded to know
where Amy was. “No more of this, okay?” Nick told him with bitter tears in his
eyes. “I’m tired of all this. I want to know where my girlfriend is right now,
or I swear I’ll blow your head off right here–”

The
wounded killer stopped him by struggling to retrieve a key card from his front
right pocket. Dalton moved the barrel of the gun to one side of his mouth with
his tongue and told Nick his girlfriend was in the hotel across the street.
“Room two-six-nine.”

Nick
slowly removed the gun from Dalton’s mouth and thanked him. “Why’d you give
in?”

Dalton
grinned and told him he had to look out for himself.

Nick
picked Dalton’s head up from the street and slammed it back down. Once he knew
Dalton wasn’t going to return to his senses for quite some time, Nick took the
card-key and crossed the broken street over to the hotel.

A
few hotel guests saw the charred state of his clothes, the way he held his arm,
and the blood on him, and asked if he was alright. Nick only told them there
was an explosion from across the street, that he was fine, and told them to
call the police. He headed upstairs to the second floor and searched for the
room Dalton described.

He
passed a couple, a Hispanic cleaning woman, and four children who occupied the
hall before he found the room. Nick swiped the card and opened the door with
the assumption of a pending attack, though there wasn’t one.

The
lights were off and though he tried the switch it failed to respond. All he had
to work off was the light from the hallway, which would disappear once the door
closed, and the ambient light from the city beyond the open windows.

He
whispered Amy’s name in the darkness with no reply. Nick checked the bathroom first,
followed by a small closet, and failed to find her on either of the beds,
though he noticed a small area of blood on the center of the sheets of the bed
closest to the window. He walked over and briefly examined the stain before he
noticed a body on the carpeted floor between the bed and the wall.

Amy
lay collapsed, still, and bloody. Her wrists and ankles were bound behind her
with steel wires that cut well into her joints and allowed a weak trickle of
blood from her wounds to collect on the floor next to her. More blood covered
her ripped blouse as well as her skirt, which was pulled down around her
calves. Whatever undergarments she wore were torn away from her and tossed
aside.

His
heart raced and though he hurried to help her, someone intervened and dug a
thin blade into his shoulder. Nick lost his balance and control and allowed his
new opponent to throw him into the wall away from Amy. Nick struggled to focus
on the assailant, but couldn’t bring himself to get to his feet or create a
weapon with which to defend himself. All he could do was watch the Hispanic
housecleaner he passed in the hall shift into his stepfather, who then
retrieved another blade from his pocket.

Paul
walked over to Nick, leaned the young man against the wall, and pressed a four
inch switchblade against Nick’s throat. “How’d you manage to beat Dalton?” Paul
asked in a quiet voice. “He’s not dead is he?”

Nick
lowered his gaze and admitted that he didn’t kill him. “Who are you really?”