Rebels & Lies

by Brian Cotton

  Chapter .44

   

  There was an odd, mixed feeling inside of Kaspar. He couldn’t put his finger on it. Danny was the man who gave up Mother and he finally received justice. However, Kaspar couldn’t bring himself to feel happy about it. Danny…he was like a father figure, in a strange way, a friend, too. Just thinking about it forced him to slam the side of the van with his fist.

  He could hear Paxton and Clarke’s voices converse with one another through his ear piece. Kaspar looked over to Krys. She just seemed to stare off into the distance. No emotion and, most of all, no smile. He had to do something to cheer her up again. They were going in on a dangerous mission once more and he couldn’t bear not seeing that smile again.

  Kaspar leaned forward. “Hey, you okay?”

  “Yeah,” Krys replied, running her hand through her hair. “I’m fine.”

  “You sure?”

  “That’s what I said, right?”

  “Okay,” Kaspar replied. He started to look around the van while he rubbed his cheek. “Hey, I’ve got an idea.”

  “What’s that?”

  Kaspar looked around the van once more. Paxton and Kilbourne were talking strategy in the front. Over to the right, Li was huddled in a corner, meditating again. He thought about what to say for a moment. Krys leaned forward in anticipation. Screw it, Kaspar thought, who cares?

  “I know this great place downtown. They’ve got pool tables everywhere and it’s not as crowded with biker gangs as your place, either.”

  “Okay…”

  “I was thinking, when all this is over, we should head over there sometime.”

  “You asking me out or something?”

  Oh, shit.

  “Not so much asking you out,” Kaspar replied. “As free lessons on me. I never got the chance to kick that ass of yours.”

  “I don’t know…” Krys’s voice started to trail off. “It sure sounds like you’re asking me out.”

  “Maybe, maybe not, what do you say?”

  Krys leaned back. “I’d have to say no. You don’t seem like the dating type to me.”

  A feeling of defeat attacked Kaspar inside. He remained undeterred, though. He stared into her wide, brown eyes as she stared back at him. Kaspar dared the woman inside his own mind to look away first. He longed to see her smile again…before the shooting started.

  “Fuck you, too.” Kaspar said.

  Krys’s eyes widened as she looked dumbfounded at him. Kaspar put on a huge grin. Krys couldn’t help but smile back. The smiles soon turned to laughter. Li was shook away from his meditating. He looked over to the two crazies he shared the back of the van with. They had a primitive look on their faces. It was almost like they were going to eat each other. Li shook his head and tried to get back to meditating. He had a grin on his face, too.

  “Oh my God!” Krys exclaimed. “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

  “You deserved it.” Kaspar replied, still smiling.

  “I’ll tell you what you deserve, a nice kick in the ass. When?”

  “When what?”

  “You really are a moron, aren’t you?”

  Kaspar thought for a moment. “How about tomorrow?”

  “I can’t make that tomorrow…I’ll probably be tired.”

  “Next night?”

  “Ummm…” Krys looked straight up at the ceiling of the van. She looked back down, “You’ve got it.”

  “Okay, but, you’ve been warned.”

  “So have you, big shot.”

  “Hey, Kas,” Kilbourne said from the front, breaking the spell. “Can you hand me that red bag back there?”

  Kaspar gripped the shoulder straps of the red back. He handed the bag off to Kilbourne’s awaiting hands. In that moment, Kaspar was reminded that now was not the time to get sloppy and lose track of his focus. Now, more than ever, he needed to maintain it on the task at hand. It would be a hell of a time to do something stupid like wind up dead.

  Up front, Kilbourne unzipped the red back and examined the contents inside. He pulled out a large amount of C4, charges, and a detonator. After examination, he placed the contents back inside and zipped the bag shut.

  “We’re going to find the main processing lab inside there,” Paxton instructed. “Then blow it to kingdom come.”

  “How big of an explosion do you want?” Kilbourne wondered.

  “Big enough to dismantle the fucking things.”

  “What I mean is, do you want me to bring the whole building down?”

  Paxton smirked. “Of course not, we’re not terrorists.”