A young man wakes up in the desert. The wreckage of an ambulance lies smashed against a boulder and charred to a crisp. By the stitches on his head and face, he assumes he was the patient. But why was an ambulance driving through a desert? Where wa...
She'd never felt as tied to another person's fate as she did at that moment. Maybe that was the way the world was.
"Ace, ataka."
By the time she realized what she had just said, the dog was already racing frantically, riding the earth with the ravishing majesty of a beast from hell. Virgil looked away from Abel momentarily to see the gigantic animal rushing rapidly towards him, a moment Abel capitalized on by grabbing hold of the muzzle with both hands and pushing it away from him. Virgil's killer reflexes made him lash his elbow straight to Abel's sternum, dropping Abel on his back with no breath left in his lungs. But when Virgil tried to point the gun at Ace, he met the animal mid-pounce, and the dog tackled him to the ground. The gun flew through the air as the animal bit furiously at Virgil's right arm, cutting the cartilage of his wrist as though it were mere rubber. Undaunted, he hauled off and landed a punch at Ace's neck that made the dog fall back in sudden bafflement. Virgil rolled aside and stumbled quickly back to his car, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Light saw that moment as a chance to run to Abel's car, knowing it was bulletproof. Abel, who soon caught his breath and stood up, beckoned to her to accelerate her speed.
"Come on! Get in!"
Light and Ace got into the car just before Abel pulled out the Smith & Wesson Revolver from his glove compartment and unloaded it against the wheels of the SUV. Before Virgil could reply with lead, Abel was already back behind the wheel, and the tires were burning rubber to make them disappear over the horizon.
*****
"Who the hell was he?" asked Light from the backseat, trying not to hyperventilate.
"He's...just a guy who I owe some money to."
"Did he follow you up to the desert just because of that?"
"Well, it's just..." Abel tried to make it up on the fly. "I got in deep with the sharks. They set me up. Doesn't matter now. Here." He gave her an ID card with a small metal clip attached. "Put it on. We have to get out of here as soon as possible."
The lack of conviction in Abel's voice didn't go unnoticed by her.
"But..."
"You want me to get you out of here? Well, then stop asking. Here." He pulled a cylindrical pot and a bottle of water from the glove box and passed them to her. "Take one."
"What's this?"
"An anxiolytic. Gotta take the edge off. I can't let you enter a top-secret military facility passing as a trained naval expert if you're about to snap. Take just one."
Light swallowed one and took a sip of water. Her pulse was still hammering hectically at her temples. It was the third time she had truly left herself for dead, but not for one second could she afford to panic. She made sure Abel wasn't watching her and took another anxiolytic, splitting it in half and taking just one half. She drank the bottle and leaned her head against the seatback, her hand on her forehead.
"And now what?"
"Now, we'll pass a few controls. I already have all your fake documentation. Speak only when necessary and don't say too much. When in doubt, leave the talking to me."
"And what do we do with Ace? Won't he draw some attention?"
"No. He won't, 'cause no one'll see him."
"What are you gonna do?"
"Wait."
Fifteen minutes later, he parked the car again on the side of the road, and the three of them came out. Abel pulled a large suitcase with wheels out of the trunk and removed a bag from it. From that, he removed a syringe and a bottle filled with a clear liquid.
"We don't have much time, and even less for you to yammer."
"What's that?"
"A sedative. I'm gonna make him sleep for a few hours and put him in the suitcase. If all goes well, he'll wake up on the ship. Help me hold him."
Abel noticed the tremor in Ericka's hands, as well as her rapid breathing. No anxiolytic could contain her traumatized state.
*****
Ace barely noticed the needle. He fell asleep within minutes, and they tucked him in the suitcase and put him in the trunk.
"You OK?" asked Abel condescendingly.
Light sighed, trying in vain not to vent on him.
"No, I'm not. In the last thirty hours, I almost died in a shoot-out, during which I had to kill two people, set a house on fire and make off with a giant dog; I hid in a motel where I got almost no sleep; I got arrested by the police and thought I was doomed; I almost watched Ace die twice; I almost watched you die, for no good reason, by the way; and maybe, just maybe, I was gonna get killed too, 'cause God knows why the hell that Chinese psycho was here in the first place, 'cause you won't tell me, 'cause you'll say it's ultra-secret or something." She raised her index finger towards the sky in warning. "So, don't even think about telling me to just calm down."
Abel was disarmed mentally, as only a man can be before a woman. He gawked, astonished at that finger, as if it pointed up at God himself.
"He's British," he finally said. "He was born in Hong Kong. So, he's technically a Brit."
Light stared at him. Just the faint silence of the steppe. And then she broke into laughter. And Abel laughed with her. They were not laughing with joy, but simply to let off steam. And yet those laughs were completely sincere.
"Oh, God. I definitely need some sleep," she admitted.
Abel nodded sympathetically.
"All right. You'll be able to rest in the Sea Shadow all you want, but first," he pulled out a ring, seeing her naked ring finger, "remember, you're engaged. Will you make Jake Olsen the happiest man in the world?"
She put the ring on gladly.
"Of course I will. He's gonna be a cop."
Both returned to the car, and Abel put on the radio. Fox on the Run by Sweet was playing.
From there on, all went swell, to the surprise of them both. The car arrived at the facility, passed the checks, and parked in the employee parking lot. Nobody asked questions when they saw the knobface escort carrying that huge suitcase with wheels; it didn't feel strange to anyone to see her go with the pilot to the prototype in the dock. Nobody objected when they said they would make an unscheduled exit. No one questioned why they were not coming back.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
