Edge of the Universe: Art On The Run!

Rise: Chapter 14 - Rebel Reachout

Pain shot down his arm as she forced him to the ground.

"Argh!" he yelled.

Art wanted to yell the names of his bodyguards, but suddenly realized he didn't even know what they were. He didn't think Tony recall Tony introducing them to him, but if so, Art had long forgotten.

"Hey! Help!" he yelled at the bodyguards.

Then he yelled at the woman. "Stop it! That hurts. What are you doing?"

"What do you want with Carla," she hissed.

"Johnny told me to find her," he replied painfully.

She let up on his arm.

"Who are you? I'm Carla. I'm here looking for Johnny. Stop these men and let's get out of here."

The two bodyguards were almost in front of them. They were reaching for the woman. Art was still kneeling. He stood up in front of them and punched the smaller guy, the one that liked to talk a lot, right in the gut.

The spokesman was a big dude, but he wasn't in very good shape. Art's fist connected with soft flesh and knocked the man's breath out. Art pushed him back into the other bodyguard. Then he turned and grabbed Carla's hand to run. Art needed to find out what she knew.

"My car is over there," she said pointing to a white van along the sidewalk. It was still running. She ran to open the door and motioned for him to get in. Art saw several men inside with headphones on.

"Get in," she insisted.

Art shook his head and backed up a step. She turned to the men and ordered them to grab Art. He tried to back up and run, but tripped over the food truck equipment that was behind him. The men in the vehicle caught him by each of his arms and pulled him to his feet. They started to drag him into the van. Just as they did, a shot rang out, and the woman fell against the van screaming.

The men let go of Art and turned to help her. They threw her in the van and turned back to grab Art. But he had already scrambled away. More shots rang out, and the men jumped in the vehicle as it squealed out of the parking lot.

Art turned to see his bodyguards coming in his direction. The smaller one he had punched walked slowly with a slight limp. The other one was limping slowly as well and appeared to be out of breath from chasing after them.

They grabbed Art and half-pushed, half-pulled him to the door where a small crowd had gathered.

"What happened? What's going on?" Art overheard Tony saying as he pushed his way through the crowd.

"What are you two morons doing with him down here?" Tony shouted at the spokesman.

The man tried to explain, but Tony had already turned to Art demanding an explanation.

"That woman was crying. I asked if I could help her. She said her name was Carla, and she was looking for Johnny. She wanted me to go with her to the van. It was full of electronic devices for spying and eavesdropping. I think they were listening in to our conversation." Art gasped out of breath still himself.

They walked over to the reception desk. Tony had the security guard pull up the video feed and rewind it. As soon as he saw the woman's face, he froze.

"No way! April?" he said under his breath in such a low voice that Art could barely hear him.

"April?" Art asked. "She told me her name was Carla."

Tony shook his head in shock and sat down on the security guard's chair.

"April was, is my ex-wife. And I thought she was dead."