Tree of Life

Book II Chapter 08

A punch here. A kick there. One hit per man. Nothing wasted.

Within the span of a minute, all twenty men now lay on the floor of the forest, some of them yowling, each holding a broken arm or leg.

Julian zipped over, like a butterfly, like his feet never touched the ground, to take a position at the tree line with his back to the clearing. He slung his bow over his shoulder. He wiped his arm across his brow and smiled at Brian.

~~~

Amid the sound of curses and groaning for pain, Brian turned his head this way and that to survey the scene around him. He sighed. He shook his head. Slowly, he pivoted around to face Julian. Brian smiled at his long time friend and clapped for him. “Very impressive. You’ve been practising.”

Julian took a bow.

Brian frowned. “And Nicole?”

Julian nodded. “She’s safe. I sent her ahead.”

Behind him, Brian’s now disabled company were still moaning in pain. The ones who could walk were tending to the ones who couldn’t. Wind had picked up. It got darker and looked like it was going to rain.

“You know, Brian, I must admit, I am intrigued.”

Brian nodded. He smirked. “Me too.”

Julian smiled. He crossed his arms. “You first.”

Brian chuckled. “So you dressed yourself up like one of my men and lay on the ground in the lab?”

Julian nodded. “Yes. And Nicole too.”

“Yeah, I got that part. But I wasn’t working very hard at it. To capture you, you know? You knew I had to let you go in the end?”

“Yes, I know. Just so you could follow me.”

“And you knew I would follow you.”

“Yup. I knew you’d find a way somehow.”

“But you didn’t know how, exactly.”

“Right…”

Brian tossed his head back and laughed. He strode over to a fallen trunk nearby and sat down.

Julian smiled. He picked off a blade of grass from in front of him. He put it in his mouth and began to chew on it. Overhead, the clouds had rolled in tight. Now it began to rain.

Julian spat out a bit of what he had been chewing on. “So how did you do it? How were you able to follow us?”

Brian shrugged. “Well, the easy way would have been to use some sort of tracking device. You know that.”

Julian shook his head. “But I found the shoe.”

“I knew you would. That chip wasn’t very well hidden after all. It was just in the heel…”

“I thought so too.”

“So,” said Brian, “you had to think that I must have sneaked some other electronic gizmo onto Nikki somehow, something injected or swallowed, perhaps?”

“Precisely.”

“And that’s why you anticipated for that and made yourself an e-bomb.”

“Yes.”

“To wipe out all my electronics?”

“Yes.”

Brian chuckled. “That’s good, Julian! Very neat trick, that. I didn’t know you knew how to make one…”

“An article in Popular Mechanics. It wasn’t difficult.” Julian spat out another bit of grass. “And yet you’re still here.”

“I took it upon myself to anticipate what you would have anticipated for, and got myself a tracker.”

Julian frowned. He stood still. “A ‘tracker’?”

Brian laughed. “No! Like a human tracker!” He pointed at Sergeant Blackfoot. “Pure-blooded Iroquois. He could track a mosquito…”

“Even through rain?” Interrupting Brian, Julian looked up into the raindrops, which were getting heavier. “Like Amazon rain?” He began easing backward to enter the clearing. He craned his neck back, opened his mouth and drank of the water drops falling into it.

Thunder roared overhead. The rain got heavier still.

“You mean like now?” Brian began walking forward too, following Julian into the clearing. At the same time, Brian slipped his hand into his pocket.

“Yeah, like now.” Julian stopped at about fifteen yards out, just about the middle of the clearing. “You know what I think, Brian?”

“And what’s that?” Brian stopped too, about ten yards from Julian.

“I think I know what you’re thinking.”

“You do, do you?” Brian smirked.

“You’re thinking, that this is your last chance. This is it. I have Nicole. You have no pawns left. No other holds on me. No more aces up your sleeve…”

Brian nodded along. His hand was still in his pocket.

“…oh, and no more electronics! And no more tracking from your Iroquois buddy over there either, thanks to this heavy rain, right now.” He laughed.

“Is that right?”

“That’s right.” Julian nodded. “So now what must you be thinking?” Julian crossed his arms in front of his chest. He laughed some more. “You must be thinking right now that you better not lose me, because if you lose me, this time, right here and right now—you’re going to lose me forever.”

Brian lost his smile. He nodded. “You’re right.”

In one smooth motion, Brian withdrew a dart from his pocket and launched it at Julian.

Julian knocked it away.

And the fight was begun.

~~~

A/N: The video on the right is * kind of * what I had in mind of the locale. If what you're imagining in your mind is better, then just go with that. ^__^