<Episode 17>
The rain outside made a pinging sound as it hit the old storm drain they were hiding in. Jack kept guard near the opening while Rachel sat a little further in. He kept one eye on the look out for any World Inc. troops and the other on her. Not that he thought she would try anything, but because of the way she was acting. Rachel hadn’t said anything to him since he pointed this place out. He still didn’t understand why she asked if this thing was made of metal. But the sad part was he knew why he was getting the silent treatment now. He didn’t really treat her all that gently when he came back for her, and the whole fact he just up and left her. Jack walked over to her and sat across from her. Rachel turned to look further down into the tunnel. “Look, I’m not making any excuses…”
“That because you don’t have any excuses to make,” She said finally. All right he had that one coming.
“I know I overreacted… “
“Overreacted,” she gave out a short laugh, “that’s the understatement of the year.” That one got on what was left of his nerves a bit.
“I’m trying to say I’m sorry here.” And that came out sounding a little angrier than he had in mind. He was mentally kicking himself as she finally looked at him.
“You’re damn right you’re sorry! How could you act like that, after everything I’ve done for you? First you act like I was in on this the entire time! Then you go off and leave me on my own. And then when you do come back you freaking manhandle me!” He didn’t think it was manhandling exactly but he caught those words before they came out of his mouth. One thing he learned in his short life, never correct an angry woman or you’d never hear the end of it.
“You’re right,” was all he could say at the moment.
“You’re damn right I’m right.” Yeah it was going to take awhile to fix this one, if ever. They were quiet for a few more moments.
“We should head out in the morning,” he said. “Unless there’s a power outage because of the rain.”
“The command center has a back up generator,†she told him. “And the cameras have a solar battery of R&D design that can last around eight hours.”
There went that idea. “I’m guessing change over time is minimal.”
“They practice the emergency drill at least once a day so they have it done to a science by now.” She reached into the grocery bag she had with her and pulled out a box of aluminum foil. Again with the metal, what the hell? “Before we decide on or go anywhere there’s something we need to do first.”
“I don’t care how kinky you are now ain’t the time,” he said to try to lighten the mood. She didn’t look like she found it all that funny. “If you’re planning to poach a rat I think I heard some down that way.”
“I wish you would stay serious…”, she started before stopping. “This is the best idea I had for blocking the tracker’s signal.”
“Wait, you said they couldn’t track the bike.”
Slowly she said, “And they can’t”
He didn’t like where this was heading. “Then where is it?”
Rachel looked a little apprehensive as she leaned in, reached behind his head and tapped a spot at the base of his skull, “Right about here.”
He knocked her arm away, “Ah hell no! How long has this piece of crap been in my head?”
Rachel found something down the tunnel interesting again, “Since you were first bonded with the Fusion system.”
“Son of a bitch!”, Jack got up and walked away. Anything he felt about treating her the way he did quickly disappeared. Half of him wanted to get on the bike and leave her sorry butt again. That half was starting to sound like it had the right idea. “This is how you found me the other day wasn’t it? You should have told me about this thing.”
“Anderson said it was to be kept under need to know.”
“I think I needed to know before now!”
“I should have told you but I didn’t know when.”
“I know, how about this, ‘ we can get out over there, oh and by the way….’, that sounded like a good time to me.”
“All right, we both made mistakes here. But this still need to be done. Now turn around and sit down.” Not believing he was doing this Jack did as he was told. There was a sound of foil being ripped then she pulled his hood back. “This should fix it so they can’t pinpoint our location,” she said as she worked. In moments she put the hood over head. As he turned to look at her Jack could hear his hair rub against the foil.
“I hate you.”
“Get over it,” Rachel shot back as he got back on his feet. She put the foil back in the bag. “We might be eating those rats before long. I’m hoping somebody in your family knew how to cook over an open fire.”
“What your Aunt in the bayou never cook a lizard?” Again she didn’t find it funny, right know he didn’t care. He pulled out an envelope and handed it to her. “We shouldn’t be starving anytime soon.” She opened it and her eyes went wide in surprise.
“Where did you get this?”
“Whenever I deposited a check I always kept a couple of thousand of it in cash. Just in case Anderson decided to take everything away after I got the monkey.” Rachel slowly went from shocked to angry. Way angrier then she looked before. A moment later he realized why. “Telling you sounded a whole lot better in my head.”
“You were going to go off and leave me on my own when you had this?”. She slapped the envelope into his chest, “You jerk!”
“Ok , so I’m one up in the mistake department.” This day keeps getting better and better. Thank God it was almost over. “Its going to be a long night, you better get some sleep while I keep watch.”
“No, I’ll keep watch,” she said after calming down a bit, “you look like you need the sleep more than I do.†He started to protest but she cut in, “And I will use this foil to gag you if I have too.”
“Fine,” he said as he sat back down. “Wake me up in a few hours to take over.” Rachel agreed and took a spot near the opening. He tried to get comfortable, trying to decide which nightmare was worse. The one he was in now or the one he was in when he was asleep.
***
Anderson studied the blinking light on the telephone. There was a temptation to “accidentally” lose the call. No that wouldn’t work, the man on the other end would just call back and be even more annoying. Humans could be so taxing at times. Taking a moment to calculate the distance of his closest assassin Anderson picked up the receiver, “Good morning Senator, sorry about the delay but there was a report on my desk that needed my full attention.”
“Is that right,” Henning said. “Would today’s paper be part of that so called report?”
Anderson glanced down at his desk at said paper. Haily and Davidson picture was featured on the front page. “Not particularly. Why do you ask, was there something in there you found interesting?”
“Is this your idea of handling it?!”, Henning yelled. “I thought the project was classified, why are you announcing it all over the news?”
“They were only told about Haily and Davidson.” He hated explaining himself to the humans. It was almost as bad as a blue questioning his decision, if not worse. “Nothing of the project was mentioned.”
“Unless they spill it. God what a mess you put us in.” This from a man who was unfamiliar with the project to begin with. It was almost humorous.
“We’ve taken precaution in case the local authorities apprehend them before we do.” Which might be the case since they lost Davidson’s signal hours ago. Williams had her people going over the system in case it was a glitch. But he thought Mitchell assumption was correct and Haily had found a way to block it.
“You know what?”, Henning continued, “I don’t care. I’m going to launch a full investigation into your company for allowing this to happen.” Anderson did laugh out loud this time. “Do you think this is funny Anderson?” It was time to put this human in his place.
“I don’t think you will be doing that Senator.”
“Don’t think Rhodes will go against me on this.”
“How did you win reelection last time Senator?”, he asked idly
He was apparently thrown by the change of subject, “I don’t see what this has to do with anything.”
“Oh yes I remember now, the person projected to beat you by a very wide margin dropped out of the race suddenly. A particularly nasty drug habit I believe.”
“What are you getting at?”
He allowed himself a small smile, “Who do you think found and released that information?”
“You…”, Henning sputtered.
“Not me personally, I have very thorough people working for me. People who will stop at nothing until they find something. No matter how small it may be. Then I also have a group under me who will take that information and spin it into something as large as possible. Although I must admit I love seeing the product of their work after they’re done. It’s as close to being little masterpieces as one can get.”
“Are you threatening me Anderson?”
“Of course not Senator. All I’m saying is that if any investigation is launched at my company, by anybody, the world will find out how you like to be tied up by your mistress and whipped.”
“I do not…”
“You will after I’m done with you, “he said coolly. “Even I am surprised at how convincing the evidence they create can be. I’m sure your wife, whose is the sole name on the deed to the house and cars you own, will find it convincing as well. So I suggest you be a good little Senator and leave this alone.” He hung up before Henning could respond. While it was useful to have same man in charge of the budget committee Henning was becoming a problem. Perhaps it was time to cut ties and support someone else. Taylor walked in a few minutes later going over the report in his hand. Best to get this out of the way now before anything else was discussed. “Contact Rhodes and see who else is in Henning’s committee. I want to know everything about them.
“Of course sir,” Taylor said as he put the report down on his desk.
“So what went wrong yesterday?”
“During the interviews I discovered two flaws in the assault team plan to capture them.” He stood there not saying anything else. Times like this he missed how Allen would get to the point without being asked. He almost thought Taylor felt he was in control of the situation this way.
Anderson sighed loudly, just for effect. A small sign to tell him otherwise. “What were they?”
“They overestimated their ability to take down Davidson.”
“That much was obvious Mr. Taylor.”
“Yes sir,” he agreed. “The second was Mitchell use of the system disrupter. He apparently used it after Davidson powered up sir.” Anderson suspected as much. He told Mitchell it was designed to disrupt the activation sequence. “Dr. Armstrong says he can have another one ready in no time.”
He was going to dismiss him but he thought the information over. “I must admit what Mitchell tried intrigues me. Have Armstrong look into it.” Taylor nodded in response. He doubted Armstrong would be all that pleased with the request. R&D was already working on several ideas to counter the Fusion system. But depending on the prey, it was nice to have options.
***`
That morning had been a rough one. When she woke Jack up for his shift at guard duty he went to run his hand through his hair. Rachel had to remind about the tracker in his head. He grumbled something as he got up took her spot by the opening. She went to sleep rather quickly but it seemed like no time before he was jostling her awake, “What?”
“Time to move,” he told her. Rachel looked outside, it was daylight. She was expecting crack of dawn, but she was grateful for the couple of extra hours of sleep. But she was also surprised he was still there.
“Any idea on what we do now?”
“I think I know a place we can hide out for a while, for a couple of days at least. I’m assuming there are cameras located at the ways in and out of the city.”
She shrugged, “Possibly, I never thought to find out. It never seemed that important.”
“I think it be better if we played it paranoid and assume they do.”
“Ok then what do we do?”
He looked a little disgusted before he spoke. “My Uncle knew a guy that specialized in getting things and people out of the town without being noticed. I’ll try to track him down and see if he could help us. It’s gonna cost us a bit though.”
Rubbing the back of her neck she said, “I can’t believe this is sounding like a good idea.” She looked at him in disbelief, “And you grew up with this stuff?”
“Mom made sure it stayed out of the house as much as possible. But I saw it enough to recognize it when I see it.”
Now she had to know, “Is that what happened with Anderson? Is that why you didn’t trust him?”
He sighed, “That was part of it, but I also distrust rich people, so it was kind of a double whammy.” He looked outside before speaking again, “We better get going, it’s gonna be a tricky couple of days.” Jack walked the KR-1000 out of the tunnel and waited until she got on before starting the engine. Almost at once she wished he didn’t leave the helmet behind yesterday as she kept a hand on top of the hood to keep it from flying off. After a few miles he pulled into a gas station saying he wanted to be sure he had a full tank, just in case. They stood on either side of the motorcycle not looking at each other. They might have been getting along a bit ago but there was still some animosity there. She looked around to take her minds off thing when she noticed something strange.
“Why is everybody looking at us?”, she wondered out loud.
“Maybe they’re wonder how I got stuck with you,” he said.
“Jackass,” she muttered. Then she heard him smack himself, hopefully in the head. Good, she wished she did it first. How much longer was he going to act like this? More importantly how much longer was she going to be stuck with him? After another moment he started tugging on her jacket. “Would you quit it.”
“You might want to see this,” Jack told her.
“What is it?, she snapped as she turned to see what was so important. He was pointing to something behind him, looking a little panicked. Rachel wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking at until she saw the newspaper machines. Their pictures were on each and every one of them. She held on to the motorcycle to keep from falling over. She uttered one word in French, “Merde.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he said as he pulled the nozzle out of the gas tank.
“People are on their phones, what do we do?”
“I say we add stealing gas to whatever they’re saying about us.” They jumped on the KR-1000 and Jack got them out of there quick. She spotted a police car coming at them from the other direction. Jack saw it before she could point it out and yelled, “Lean with it!”, right before taking a hard right into an alley. Rachel held on for dear life as he drove around the things and people in the alley at high speeds. After exiting the alley and almost getting blindsided by a truck Rachel closed her eyes and just leaned in whatever direction it felt like they were going. To think she called him a madman after he first got this thing. Suddenly they came to a stop. She opened an eye, they were in another alley.
“Is giving them a chance to block us in that good of an idea?”
“Would you rather I’ve lead them to the place I was telling you about?”
“I guess not,” Rachel answered as she got off the motorcycle. “I haven’t exactly been on the run before, I’m a little new at this.”
“Not like I have a whole lot of experience at this either,” he shot back. Jack closed his eyes and looked like he was trying to calm down. “Besides I figured we could use a moment or two to catch our breath. Well I could any way,” he started rubbing his chest, about were Rachel was holding on. “Damn you got a death grip.”
Rachel smile despite the situation, “I like to stay breathing, what can I say.” He returned the smile. “So how far away is this place?”
“Not far, a few blocks I think. I’m going to need to see some street signs to know for sure.”
She really didn’t want to know the answer to this thought she just had, but she had to know. “I’m assuming our faces being on the front page of the papers might affect us getting out of town.”
“Price might get jacked up.” She stated getting a headache thinking about all of this. It was hard to believe that yesterday morning their biggest problem was were to sit in the cafeteria.
***
She walked the halls trying to avoid the others. But they found her anyway to offer their condolences. Was it possible to get sick of people saying they were sorry for her loss? Melissa was positive she reached that point a long time ago. Besides she had other things on her mind that she wanted to think about. Alone, if that was at all possible. She turned a corner that lead to the outside and ran into Emily and a small blond child. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing to concern yourself about,†Emily told her. “Samantha here needed help looking for her ball. She thought I could help her look for it. How did you put it little one, people said I had a knack for finding things?”
“And it was right were she said it was,” the girl beamed. Melissa smiled back even though she didn’t want to.
“That’s good, now you better get going before your parents start getting worried.” She hugged the ball and ran off. “I wish I was that young again,” she said out loud.
“I think just about everyone wish they could be today,” Emily replied. “You know I have always marveled at the way children can bounce back from most things.”
“You didn’t really use you ‘knack’ to find that ball did you?”
“If I wanted to young one, but sometimes you need to know the right questions to ask.” Emily studied her for a moment, “Is there something wrong Melissa?”
“I just needed some air.” It wasn’t a total lie. Not that the woman before her ever believed them to begin with.
“I wouldn’t, it’s going to rain soon.” Melissa gave her a quizzical look. “My shoulder always aches when it’s about to rain. And my shoulder is never wrong,” she gave her a sly smile. “So what is wrong?”
“The special council meeting that’s coming up. Part of me is afraid they’re going to pick me.”
“Oh,†she replied with mild surprise, “why would you think that? Did you get a feeling off one of them?”
“Chris warned me once that if anything happened to him then I’d be put in charge in order to gain sympathy.”
“Warned?”, it was strange to see her looking uncertain. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“I’d just be a figure head, very little actual power, if any. Not that I want to be put in that position, but I don’t want to be used like that either. But I’m not a leader either, not like Chris was.” Emily put a hand on her shoulder.
“No offense child, but Christopher wasn’t that leader either, at least not at first. He slowly grew into the role. Him being right more than he was wrong helped his confidence a lot during those early times, and helped the other gain confidence in him.” She sat down on a nearby barrel. “It’s just too bad that aura of that role grew faster than he did into it.”
“I noticed, there were times I had to force him to step back for a few moments here and there. There are times I think the position would have killed him sooner or later.”
The old woman nodded, “If Christopher had one failing is that he thought he had to live up to his own legend. If the Killer didn’t kill him something else would have. If you are granted that position make sure you learn from his mistake. I don’t think I can stand losing the two of you.”
“I don’t think either have much to worry about. I mean what are the odds that would really happen?” Emily grunted before she got up and walked off saying nothing more. Melissa hated it when she did that. It meant she knew or ‘saw’ something and wasn’t letting on what it was.
***
Waiting until it started getting dark and with the hood as far over his head as it would go Jack checked out the street. The first thing he noticed was that they were closer to the hideout than he thought. They should probably head there as soon as he got back. They cops haven’t found them yet and that alley felt a little too open for his taste. With that out of the way he started out to search for a newsstand. More than likely not the smartest move he could make at the moment, but he had to know what they were saying about him and Rachel. Besides he could use a good piece of fiction right now. He found a machine quickly enough and bought one. Reading it on the way back he tried to keep his reaction to minimum, trying to avoid attracting any attention. When he finally got back to Rachel he told her, “They said I’m crazy.” Then he noticed the three guys in black leather who had her surrounded. One had his hand around covering her mouth. “Why me?”, he muttered. “Let her go,” he said to them hoping he sounded a bit convincing.
The skinny one with the beard and a chain around his neck said, “He’s smells like Drakan blood too.”
Jack looked up and held his arms wide, “Seriously why me?”
The one with a scar over his right eye, who had Rachel up against the wall, pointed at the paper in his hands. “I told ya she looked familiar. These punks are the one they’re looking for.” Those two started counting the money from the look of it. The third, a fat bald guy with a dragon tattoo on his head just stared at him
“Smell the death on this one boys, I’d betcha this chump the Drakan Killer.” The other two started looking scared. In fact scar let go of Rachel. Now if only the third one looked that way. “Imagine the respect when the red and greens found out us blues took him out.”
“Rather have the money,” scar said.
“They say anything about him being dead or alive? Either way we turn her in for the reward and word gets out that we took out the Killer.” The dragon tattoo stated and his gut looked like it was getting bigger as he changed into a blue hippo. “Remind me to keep something to prove I did it. And make sure she don’t go any where” Jack dropped the paper as he raised his left arm up across his chest. The belt appeared and he swung it to the side and raised his right arm.
“Henshin!”, he slammed his right hand on top of the belt and the armor covered him. Jack ran in and planted his foot in the Drakan stomach. It bent over and backed up, then it looked at him and smiled. “Ah crap,” he said as he ducked a right cross and punched it between the eyes. The Drakan put its hands up to cover its face, Jack came in and it kicked its leg out. He got hit in the chest and flew back. The hippo put his hands down and smiled at him again.
“I thought you were supposed to be tough chump.” It looked at the others, who stayed in their human form. “You could take this guy Tony”, it said to the bearded one, who gave it the finger. Jack got to his feet and ran at the Drakan again. The hippo patted its stomach, daring him to do it again. But he jumped and flipped over the Drakan and kicked it in the back as he landed. It stumbled foreword and tried to turn around. Jack hit a right cross of his own that kept it staggering. He tried punching it down but the hippo would only go down to a knee. Backing up a bit he kicked it in the head. As its head snapped around it’s leg swung out catching him by surprise and behind the knees. He landed on his back and tried to get up before the hippo did, no such luck. It dragged him up by the arm and slammed him into the wall. Then it slammed him face first in the other wall. The hippo repeated the move a few more times before letting him drop. The Drakan wiped something off his mouth, “Tougher than I thought you’d be. Tony!”, it yelled while holding out a hand. The bearded guy threw the chain at the hippo.
Jack rolled out of the way as an end of it was whipped at him. He was forced to roll a few more times before he could get up to a knee. He got an arm up and the chain wrapped around his forearm. The hippo started to pull it but he moved first, hitting a quick jump kick under its chin. He glanced at the bike, thinking about getting the staff. That moment gave the Drakan the chance to clock him in the back of head. Jack lashed back with a backhand that luckily found its jaw. That gave him time to get rid of the stars he was seeing. Now if only that damn ringing would go away. Jack turned and snapped its head back with and uppercut. Then he saw scar pull out a knife and take a step toward Rachel. The hippo saw that he was distracted and wrapped the chain around his neck and pulled it tight. Jack grabbed at the chain but it kept getting tighter. The Drakan kicked him behind the knee to force him down. It was getting harder and harder to breath, despite little protection the body suit gave him. The meter started flashing, he hoped he wasn’t imagining it as he twisted the right pod down. The mini turbines started spinning as he reached behind his head and grabbed the chain. Jack tried to pull the chain open while the hippo pulled it tighter. It seemed like forever but the chain finally snapped. Not even thinking twice he kicked his right foot back. The foot hit its stomach and the hippo flew back into some garbage cans and exploded.
Jack grabbed a length of the chain that was left and slowly got to his feet. He looked at the other two and waved them on. They looked at each other, turned and ran out of there. He dropped back to his knees and held his neck. “Bout time that Killer crap started working for me.” Jack hit the belt again to power down the system and looked at Rachel,” They do anything to you?”
It took a few moments but she said, “They found me right before you got back.” He was surprised he felt relived that she was all right. It not like he shouldn’t be feeling nothing, but still. But that was too close this time, no doubt about it.
“We better get out of here in case they have friends nearby, or decide to call the cops.”
***
Anderson walked the hall of the medical section with Taylor and Armstrong in tow. The head of R&D talked the entire way while he listened. When they arrived at the door he was heading for he looked at him, “Are you what you are saying is even possible?”
Armstrong looked a little hurt, “Have I ever told you anything that wasn’t?”
“Excuse my doubts Dr. Armstrong, but it was six months before you said Davidson was ready.”
“I know, but we also had to rebuild his left arm and both of his legs from what was left after his accident. Granted spine injuries are always a little tricky, but I’m comfortable we can get it done in a fraction of the time. This is the Mark 2 I’m talking about here sir. It’s one of the improvements we’ve made from Jack’s design.”
“I’ll need to think it over,” he told them. “Stay out here, I wish to talk to him in private.” He had already made up his mind by the time he entered the room. Mitchell was there in the darkened laying in the bed. He glanced at him briefly before returning his gaze to the ceiling. Anderson had the sudden urge to say don’t get up. Obviously Davidson influence, he’ll be glad when it was gone. Anderson walked up to the bed and clasped his hands behind his back. “Mitchell, I have a proposition for you.”
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