The Assassin and The Thief

Chapter 15

(Marik's POV)

I thought jumping out a window would be awesome. In action movies it's awesome but in real life it's like doing a roly-poly into a wall. I jump through my hotel window opposite the room door, crashing through and landing six-or-so feet down into the car park. I wish I could say glass rained down torrentially around me, showering me in its glistening daggers. Nah - it just tickles when it lands on your back and when you stand up it pricks into your skin a little, the smaller shards getting caught in your clothes. Alarms begin to blare from inside and instead of going to my car I stealthily slide against the wall, avoiding the black limos patrolling the car park and find shelter in a small area round the back where they keep the bins.

"Gross," I whisper to myself at the smell and grip the barbed wire fence, climbing up and pulling myself over it. Hey, you gotta be in good shape to be an assassin. Once I'm on the other side I scale across the industrial estate, hiding under tin roofs and around the crooks of doorways - no helicopters will see me this way and there's a good chance of being overlooked by someone from the street. I hear sirens in the distant background but I keep running. Even though I'm abandoning everything I have; my car, my money, I just keep running. Kaiba's guards will be ransacking my room by now anyway so there's no way I can go back.

I text the number that Bakura used to call me, hoping in good faith he isn't dead or in cohorts with Kaiba. If he is, this plan was genius. Meet me at the hospital in Crystal City in 5 hours.

I get an immediate response, maybe not immediate but fast. 561400.

(Bakura's POV)

As I am bundled into the limousine my hands are secured behind my back. My eyes search around wildly for anything I can see, anything I can use. Bingo! Once I'm seated inside I notice the man sitting across from me. Blue Eyes, of course. He smirks smugly down t me as the metal of the handcuffs bites viciously into my skin. I watch him, glaring venomously. "What do you want now?!" I demand, hissing at him. "Take the ring - you have it now! Now let Joey go!"

Blue Eyes frowns at me, shaking his head as I am seated between two heavy-set elite guards. "The deal was to hand me Marik and the ring. When we arrived at the address you gave Marik wasn't there,"

Yes, he escaped! My relief must look like fear in my wide eyes because Blue Eyes bursts into a satisfied laughter. "We'll find him don't worry. We had guards patrolling the area. Until then, you can be my collateral when he finally does show up,"

His face suddenly turns cold and serious. "I won't be cheated out of anything,"

The ride through the trails and up mountains is rough and I find myself being tossed around a lot in the backseat. After a while I feel my phone buzzing and realise with profound, Earth-shattering excitement that it's within my reach in my pocket. And if is buzzed, it must be Marik. Meaning they haven't caught him yet!

I snake my cuffed hands into my back pocket, fumbling until I pull out my burner. I look up to check if anyone's noticed me: Blue Eyes is typing away on his laptop and the statuesque guards are staring straight ahead. Using my finger pads to feel for the bumps on the buttons (I think they were put there are Braille?) I navigate the correct numbers into a text. I press the button I know is the green one and pray, pray to whichever God is listening that the text sends and Marik gets it. That he knows what to do, knows what to look for. That he knows what I mean because it's all I can type. He's an assassin - a high-ranking, intelligent, powerful fucking assassin.

I sent him the limousine tracking number.

All limousines have a number which confirms to their origins; the company they come from, a code to track their whereabouts, use to locate the limo of something goes wrong. It's like a car registration plate and the same system is used in public transport, buses, trains, whatever.

I know this because I've been going on public transport my whole life and there isn't much entertainment for a poor kid running rampant on the streets of Cairo. So I train-spotted with the railway system, noting the numbers of each carriage and train unit, how rare or common each one appeared at what time, how old they'd be. I haven't trainspotter since I was 10 cause it's a fucking nerdy thing to do and Akefia beat that sensitive shit right outta me bit instinctively, I always looks for and memorise the coding numbers for the vehicles I'm in.

And despite all this terror, I'm genuinely super giddy about this being my first ever limousine-spotting!