A time To Die - Dont Be A Hero Book 2

A Fine Mess

"He will be here soon."

Jerome stepped toward her. He seemed transfixed and Jackson wanted to go and shake him. Now was not the time for the Falcon to lose his head over a female.

Instead, he stepped closer to the others, searching their faces. "What has he done to them?"

"I do not know. I do not question what the master decides to do."

Jackson swung around and advanced on her, his guns at ready. Jerome stepped into his path and blocked the way. "This is not her doing. She does not deserve your anger."

Jackson stopped and looked into the golden eyes of his friend. He realized that it was he who was losing his head. He drew a deep breath and calmed himself.

"Sooo. My guessstsss have finally arrived. Welcome." The voice slithered around the room, seeming to originate from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. They turned to see a cloaked figure glide into the room from another door they hadn't noticed before. "I have been looking forward to meeting you, Detective. And the angel! The male counter-part to my own beautiful, faithful angel! A pleasure to finally have the matching ssset."

"What did you do to them?" Jackson took a step toward the cloaked figure as he spoke. Suddenly from out of nowhere the room filled with men. Muscle-bound, mean-looking men. They surrounded both of them and two stepped into Jackson's path. One of them gave him a nasty looking sneer and placed his huge paw in the center of Jackson's chest and gave him a shove.

Jackson did not move an inch. He looked down at the over-sized mitt and then his eyes moved slowly back up to the dimly lit eyes of the brute. Suddenly his hand shot up and he grabbed the man's wrist and yanked it to the side, twisting as he moved so fast that no one even saw it happen. There was a loud crack as the thick, muscled arm snapped at the elbow and the following silence was broken by an agonized wail.

All hell, and I mean ALL HELL, broke loose.

...........

Lillian kept a constant conversation going with her new friend. The boy knew a lot. Not as much as she did, but she had yet to meet another person who knew as much about technology as he did other than herself and Orion. They talked about many things and he was excited by the stuff she knew. He had many questions and she had answers for him. He had no one to ask these questions before meeting her. As they spoke, he helped her to clean up the mess he had made of her network and her connections. He was impressed with the crystal technology and thoroughly enthralled with her entire set-up. It was difficult to keep his attention on the task at hand as one thing after another distracted him.

I CANT BELIEVE I MET YOU! IMAGINE MY LUCK. I AM NOT A VERY LUCKY KID.

"You just haven't looked in the right places for luck, then."

OH NO. IVE LOOKED EVERYWHERE. I JUST DONT EVER GET LUCKY. I MEAN, MY FIRST JOB FOR THE SCARY GUY IS TO MESS UP YOUR COMPUTER STUFF AND YOU JUST HAPPEN TO BE THE SMARTEST PERSON IN THE WORLD WITH COMPUTERS. I DIDNT EVEN STAND A CHANCE.

Lillian laughed. She really liked this kid. She couldn't wait to meet him in person. It was so amazing to her that he was inside her computers and moving around in her network.

"We've almost got it all fixed up. Did you reset everything yet?"

JUST ABOUT TO. I JUST WANT TO DOUBLE CHECK THE DATA I UNSCRAMBLED AND MAKE SURE THE COMMANDS I TRASHED HAVE BEEN RESTORED. SORRY ABOUT ALL THIS LILLIAN.

"Hey. I told you before. I don't hold you responsible. You had no choice."

YEAH, BUT I CAUSED YOU SO MUCH TROUBLE.

"Yes. That you did. Again, not your fault. Make sure everything is ready and we'll get this baby back up and running."

............

The two of them stood back to back as they battled two, three, sometimes four brutes at a time. Fortunately, these men were strong, but stupid. They fought with very little skill and no tactic whatsoever. They seemed to know only one thing and that was how to break things by smashing and throwing them. The advantage they had was that they kept coming. There seemed an endless supply of them flowing into the room, so that no matter how many were taken down, more took their place. Jackson was running out of ammo. He didn't know how long they could hold them off.

"Something's gotta give here, Jerome!" he shouted over his shoulder at his partner.

"We are outnumbered. We will not win this battle," the melodic voice replied.

"Fly out of here! Go! Get the cops! Call Chief Munson. He can get an army!"

"You'll be dead before I return. I won't leave you."

"We're both going to be dead!"

"So be it. We die with honor."

"Stubborn son-of-a...."

Suddenly a crack rang out even above the gunshots and shouts of the brutes. They all stopped. Every one of them stopped attacking and stood still. Like someone switched them all off.

"Out of the way. Move please." The voice was impatient and hurried. Jackson's eyes narrowed as he tried to see who was making their way towards him. Finally the meat-heads parted and three men stepped from the crowd. They all wore lab coats and Jackson instantly didn't like them. They were scientists.

"Ah! There you are."

Before he had a chance to react, one of them drew something from inside his coat and Jackson felt a sharp prick in his upper thigh. He looked down and saw a tiny needle protruding from it. He barely registered what had happened when Jerome grunted from behind him and staggered to the floor. Jackson felt his body grow numb and as he began to drop, one of the brutes caught him.

"There there. You have what you required. Now leave my study. All of you!" Jackson heard the hissing voice saying from somewhere behind him. He tried to move his head, but he couldn't. He couldn't even move his eyes. He was forced to stare wherever his head happened to be turned.

The crowd of muscle-men dispersed and vanished to wherever they had come from, leaving only the one holding him up and another who was dragging Jerome across the floor. Jackson could see his friend being dumped in a heap at the feet of the cloaked figure he could only assume was the Black Hole.

"Now. Take him. The ressst ssstay with meee."

"That was the deal. Now you behave yourself Simon. We don't want to be interfered with. You have what you wanted. Leave us to do our jobs in peace."

"There isss no peace for the likesss of you, my old friend. You must live with what you have created. You will never escape meee."

There was no reply and Jackson tried to get a glimpse of Macy as he was hauled from the room. He saw her just as they were turning out of the doorway and into the corridor. She was staring at him and he saw a tear leak from her eye and race down her cheek. 

I'll be back for you. He did his best to send her the message and could only hope that she heard it.

(Votes? Any comments? We are coming up to the ending very quickly. I hope I am not disappointing anyone.)