Eliot Strange and the Prince of the Resistance

57) The Plan

Before I can reach for a weapon, my own steak knife from dinner, Gus grabs the guard. Beth looks at him and says, "Gus, you scared the shit out of me."

Gus turns to me and says, "This is a friend of mine, Beth."

Friend? Before I can ask, Beth kisses Gus full on the lips like she has done it before.

"We go way back," explains Gus. "What? Maybe a couple of days?"

"He gave me the ribbon," says Beth who twirls the blue ribbon around her fingers. She mouths to me where Gus can not see it, "My boyfriend." She is so infatuated, Beth looks like she is floating. I like her even more now because she fell under the same spell I did when I met Mr. Gus Lancaster.

"Here's the key," Beth says as she hands me a key. All I see is a motorcycle parked on the street. I think it might be the one Jack and Carli drove here on. I can't drive that thing, and it doesn't sound like Torin can in his condition. Before I can tell Beth this information, she says, " The motorcycle is for the twin and his girl. Your vehicle is farther down the alley pointed in the direction you need to go."

Gus explains: "Jack and Carli are decoys. There is going to be an escape. You and Torin head home to the farm in the Dobson city. Jack and Carli are going North. They'll lose the tail and eventually meet up with you in a few days."

"That is crazy, Gus. They will have the whole One Nation Army on their tail. And what are you going to do?"

"What I always planned to do, Eliot. End the terror."

"End the terror?"

"Kill the General."

"Oh," I say. Seems simple enough.

Before I can get the whole story of what in the hell is going on or argue more, there is a small commotion and scuffle across the street. And before I even have time to think our cover is blown, I see Agent Lancaster and Jack walking with and half carrying Torin.

Torin's nose is bleeding, and he is holding his bloody hand like he is trying to keep it from falling off. I look at Gus, and he shrugs and says, "Sorry, about the nose. They have to believe us."

I want to pop Gus in the nose too, but, really, my mama is to blame for the worst of the damage to Torins's hand. I guess Jack is thinking bad thoughts about Gus too because he hauls off and punches Gus in the face, twice. Gus falls to the ground with a bloody nose and scraps his chin. Instead of finishing the job, Jack says, "Sorry mate," pulls Gus up and then walks toward the motorcycle.

"Well you definitely deserved that," I say with no sympathy, "and your new girlfriend is 16."

"What? No, she is 23. And we are just friends. Right, Beth?"

Beth shrugs and then stands on her tiptoes and kisses Gus on the lips again and then hauls off and smacks him.

"Gotta make it believable," she says.

I like this girl a lot.

"They have to believe us," says Gus to me as he holds his nose. "Now go."

Agent Lancaster and I help Torin around the corner and to a waiting car that I am relieved to see is not a golf cart. We lay Torin down across the back seat, and I get behind the wheel.

Agent Lancaster speaks to Torin before he closes the door:

"Sorry sir, but before I can take you home, I must help my son."

"Understand," is all Torin is able to mutter.

Agent Lancaster salutes the prince and says, "For King and Country."

"King and Country," repeats Torin.

This is all so crazy. This plan sucks. Everybody left behind is going to get killed, including Carli. I have to get her. I tell Torin I will be right back, and I run back to the street as I hear shouts and a motorcycle cranking up. When I get to the corner, I see Beth and Gus shouting and pointing to the back of a motorcycle as it drives away.

Jack is driving, and Carli is on the back hanging on for dear life.

I want to run after them, but I know I have to go or this crazy plan will be blown all to hell. I see two guards point in my direction. I turn to run and Agent Lancaster grabs my arm and pulls me into the alley and the shadows

"Go, save the prince. I'll take care of these two."

And he does because no one follows us.

I head south towards Mount Airy and then home. There is no moon and no streetlights, of course, and I go several miles before I figure out that I may have missed the turnoff to Mount Airy. If I did, I am heading away from home, and I'm probably in Stokes County now instead of Surry. I make an executive decision and pull off onto a side road. It looks deserted. I don't even see a house. It may be a road for farming or getting to the pond, who knows, but there is no one around and from the ruts in the road, there hasn't been in awhile. I back up and back in just enough to be hidden but still see what is coming down the road.

I don't realize how tired I am until I cut the engine. I decide to get in the back and rest for a bit, just until dawn when I can see a little better. No sooner than I crawl in back, I see a convoy of army vehicles headed back the way I came. A patrol returning to home base? I don't know, but I am glad I got off the road when I did, or I would have met them. I count thirty five vehicles until I lose count because counting cars is like counting sheep.

I am fast asleep for I don't know how long, but it is still dark when Torin wakes me with, "I've lost a finger, you know." He says it like it is the most natural thing in the world to reveal in the back seat of a car in the dead of night while hiding from the enemy.

"Oh really," I say. "How did that happen? And which finger?"

Somehow while I slept Torin found his way into my lap, and I am looking down at his beautiful face that I can't completely see because it is so damn dark. I stroke his hair.

"That feels nice, " he says and I think he has gone back to sleep until he says, "Bastards cut it off. Said they were going to send it to my mother. Ridiculous. Like they would put it in the postal next day delivery and ta da - here's you son's pinky finger, now listen up. We mean business." Torin chuckles.

"How is it?" I ask which really requires no answer, but he replies:

"Just as you would think, it hurts like a son-of-a-bitch."

"I'm sorry, Torin. When it is light, I'll take a look at it, try to find some medicine in town and re-wrap it."

"Thank you, my lady."

"You are welcome, my prince."

"I do have a question."

"Ok."

"Now that I am a marred specimen of a man, disfigured, and not quite the person you once knew, do you still love me?"

Love? That word stops me cold. I know he is injured and as tired as me. Does he know what he just said? Before I can reply, Torin is asleep again, and before I barely acknowledge this, so am I.

I am asleep and dreaming. Torin and I are at a celebration. It must be the Fourth of July because we are dressed in shorts and sitting on a blanket with a picnic basket nearby, and we are waiting for the fireworks. We are not talking, it is silent. We are anticipating the fireworks and... BOOM! They start, and it is weird because they start with the finale. The bombs bursting in air and the oh-say-can-you-see fireworks in the sky. KABOOM! There are so many fireworks, and they are so loud that they wake me up from my dream.

It is not a dream. They are real. Torin is awake too, and we can both see that, besides the ear splitting noise, the sky is on fire.

"We gotta go," I tell him and we both get out of the back and into the front seat. I start the engine and head out. Before I turn right or left, I have to make a decision.

The right leads away from home, and the left leads to the turnoff that takes us home.

I take the left and head towards the fireworks.