Invictus

Chapter 22: Favor

This time it was Santiago's turn to laugh.

"Man... that's a Pandora's Box I don't even want to touch," Santiago attempted to sit up while rubbing the part of his throat that had smashed into my arm.

"So you know about it then?" Trenton asked, crossing his arms.

"Course I know. I'm just not dumb enough to get involved by digging too deep." Santiago scowled at Trenton. Then he took a look at me and spit at the ground beneath my feet, cursing me under his breath. He was clearly upset that I had shut down his ingenious escape plan.

I could tell he and I were going to get along great.

"Word on the street is that some pretty bad people are looking for you, and I don't mean Ori-gen."

Santiago's eyebrow curled upwards, "Oh? How would you know?"

"You're a smart guy Santi, I'm sure you can put it together," Trenton's words dripped with venom. It was obvious there was something about Santiago he didn't like.

Santiago brushed off Trenton's comment as he stood to get up.

"Kya, make sure he doesn't run," Trenton said, not taking his eyes off Santiago.

Ice started to creep up Santiago's legs. He tried to move, but I placed a hand on his shoulder and glared at him. That kept him still.

"You should stay put," I said to him. He was too busy being overwhelmed by the strength of my hand against his shoulder to react to my comment.

His eyes shifted from surprise to anger as the ice encased his feet and then stopped right below his knees.

"Better?" Kya asked, looking back to Trenton.

"It's perfect, dear. Thank you," Trenton said back to her.

"What you want with me?" Santiago asked. The terror of his situation was starting to show on his face.

"Don't worry Santi, we're not like you. We don't murder for fun. Plus, we need you alive."

"What you want?" He yelled again.

"Well other than you grabbing me the information on Invictus... I'm just wondering if you know how long Javier and Julio have been after you?"

Santiago went dead silent. He looked to Kya and I, then back to Trenton.

"They not, unless of course you see things I can't Chinito," Santiago gave what I knew to be a nervous laugh.

"You haven't been able to see them because they're running off the grid. No phones, no computers, and they're rolling in unconnected rented vans and trucks. Noticed an influx of out of state Uhaul's lately?"

"I live alone and rarely go outside, so no."

"Yeah, you really could use the vitamin D," Trenton gave a concerned face as he looked over Santiago's body. He continued, "Here, check the Net if you don't believe me," Trenton handed Santiago his phone.

Santiago reluctantly took it and closed his eyes. They fluttered up and down in rapid succession for a few seconds before he opened them again. He then gave the phone back to Trenton.

"Don't prove nothing. Maybe lots of people just moving into the neighborhood, you know?"

"Ten Uhaul's from ten different locations across the state of Arizona all heading to Milwaukee on the same day? That's a strange coincidence, but I'll give it to you. Here, try this address."

Trenton punched an address into what I imagined was a GPS mapping service. He then handed his phone back to Santiago.

Santiago sucked the information from the Net just as before, then returned the phone.