Nothing But Thieves (English)

6. Chapter

I had just wanted to discuss the next steps with Brick and Stark when I noticed the trunk lid opening. Not only the warning light that suddenly appeared, the noise or the sudden draft were a more than clear indicator. It was like Brick said. These fucking cops were inventive. I slammed on the brakes.

"Brick, afterward. Catch him, but alive!" I shouted at him. He was the fastest runner of the three of us and still sat behind the driver's side in the back seat, closer to the action.

"I'm on it, Whiskey," he answered me and jumped after the boy. He wouldn't hurt the child on purpose. Brick wasn't that kind of person.

"We should have sedated him," Stark stated boredly, observing the situation in the side mirror.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, hindsight is always wiser. The kid shouldn't have come there beforehand. Luckily, Brick quickly adjusted to the changed parameters." A look in the rearview mirror told me that our third member of the group caught up with Leon and threw himself at him. Both fell to the ground and wrestled with each other. I sighed in resignation, started the engine again and put the car in reverse. I slowly approached the two. When I got to the right distance, I turned off the engine and we both got out of the SUV. Brick was now standing again, the policeman was lying in front of him. I put my hand on my forehead, closed my eyes and asked, "Brick, what happened? Did you accidentally kill him?" I opened my eyes again and looked at him intently.

He shook his head irritably. "How stupid do you think I am? I kept suffocating him until he lost consciousness."

Stark laughed. "As if that would make it any better. But at least you solved our problem."

I breathed in and out deeply. "Guys, I know the situation has changed a little. We must decide one thing. The policeman will not be killed. Under no circumstances."

"Because he reminds you of your son and you wouldn't kill children?" Stark concluded. A sore point. But regardless of my son, I couldn't kill an innocent person.

"This has nothing to do with Adrien. Just look at him. The boy isn't even allowed to buy alcohol. Is it too much to ask if we make an effort? Didn't we want to keep innocent people out of our things? Well, Leon is in the middle of the action, but at least we can make sure that he doesn't get dragged into it any further. If you had children, you would feel the same way," I concluded.

Stark raised his hands placatingly. "Yes, I understand you and I absolutely agree with you. We'll keep him with us and make sure everything goes well until our contact shows up. When everything is done, we'll put the kid somewhere where he'll be found right away."

Brick nodded, but added, slightly upset, "Whiskey, he fought back. Of course I could have broken his neck. But I didn't. Do you see how hard I tried? I didn't miss your words. We pack him up, lock him in the bedroom in the hut and leave him there until we have sorted everything out. Satisfied? But the little one is tough and inventive. He doesn't have to know that we won't shoot him. We can keep up the threat so that he will be more inclined to cooperate."

I groaned. "Okay, then let's compromise. We scare him a little and keep him out of the way. Then he can't reveal anything to his colleagues."

Everyone involved nodded. I carefully went to the child and felt his pulse. Beat actively. Together we collected the boy and this time put him in the back seat next to Brick. He looked like he was just sleeping. Stark rummaged through the backpack, pulled out a vial, drew up a syringe and stuck it into the boy's upper arm. Safe was probably safe. We finally took off those awkward Halloween masks. There was currently no threat of danger from our guest. I sighed again, started the engine and continued on our way. A little more travel and we would reach our destination.

We had now left the forest path and were back on a normal road. There was still the dense forest around us. Our journey was very quiet, no one was interested in talking anymore since we no longer had to put on a show in front of our hostage. After about 15 kilometers there was another forest path on our right, into which we turned. This one was at least as impassable as the first. The drive was winding and difficult to navigate, so I was happy when we finally stopped at our planned destination. When I took out the key, I looked in awe at the wooden hut that lay in front of us. As far as we know, hardly anyone knew about this lodge, it was a good shelter. Due to its hidden location in the forest, it was also not visible. If someone did come across them, the forest offered reasonable hiding places.

I glanced at my colleagues. They smiled back at me. "Welcome home boys."