Return Fire

by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

  I watched Asher’s lips move, not understanding what he was saying.

  He pointed to the sky, where I saw two helicopters. One was red with white lettering on the side, and the other one looked like a military helicopter with weapons strapped all over.

  I gasped. I couldn’t believe what was happening. I wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come out. Dumbfounded, I watched as the two helicopters swung around and started to head away.

  “We have to go,” I heard Asher say as the ringing in my head finally subsided.

  “Where?” My heart was pounding hard against my chest. “We don’t …”

  My voice trailed off as two black cars sped down the dirt road, kicking up a cloud of dust, and stopped in front of what remained of the cottage. Then, from out of the haze, a man riding a motorcycle appeared.

  My mouth went dry, and my hands began to tremble.

  It was the Hastati assassin who had chased me and shot my father. He had found us!

  “Her car isn’t here!” a man shouted, stepping out of the black sedan. “We missed them.”

  I held my breath, not daring to make the slightest sound. Could we have caught a lucky break? Might they leave?

  “Spread out and search the area,” the Hastati assassin ordered as a bead of sweat ran down my side. “The old woman is tricky. They could be hiding somewhere.”

  “This way,” Asher whispered and pointed toward the trees behind us. “Be really quiet but move fast.”

  I nodded, and we took off.

  Thickets, branches, rocks, and trees … nothing slowed us.

  I didn’t have time to be scared or worried. All I focused on was getting as far away from the cottage as I could.

  We stumbled across a narrow stream, and after what felt like an hour of plowing through the undergrowth, we finally found a small trail that made for a smoother run. We had stopped to catch our breath when we heard it.

  A sound that made me quiver.

  The rumbling noise of a motorcycle engine. The assassin had followed us into the woods.

  “He’s searching for us,” Asher said, dropping to the ground and taking off his shoes and socks.

  “What are you doing? We have to keep running.”

  “Making a weapon.” He put a rock about the size of his fist into the sock and tied the bottom. “See?” He swung it around. “We can use it to protect ourselves.” He handed me one of his sweaty, rock-in-a-sock weapons.

  I shook my head and let him keep both socks. “That’s not going to stop a gunman on a motorcycle.” I took out the pocketknife. “I don’t even think this will help. What we need is a motorcycle of our own.”

  Asher’s head perked up. “You’re right; we do.” He glanced around. “There.” He marched over to a small path.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as he took out the rope and laid it down between two trees, covering it up with some leaves.

  “Getting us that motorcycle.” He tied one end about three feet up the trunk of the first tree. “We’ll never make it out of here on foot anyway.”

  “But how are you going to get it?”

  “Like this.” He walked to the other end of the rope, and from behind the second tree, he pulled. The leaves went flying as the rope snapped up, creating a barrier. “Yesterday, you said you wanted to stop running and return fire. Well, this is where we start.”

  The plan wasn’t complicated. I had to lure the motorcyclist down the path. As he approached, Asher would pull the rope, knocking the assassin off the bike. Then we’d take the motorcycle and head back to Rome.

  It was seriously crazy. But then everything that had happened to me in the last few days was already off-the-charts nuts.

  “Ready?” Asher asked, hiding behind one of the trees.

  I nodded.

  I ran back toward a small clearing and pretended to be lost.

  “Asher! Asher! Where are you?” I hated acting like a dumb girl who would give away her location, but it was all part of the plan.

  The forest grew quiet. The assassin had shut off his engine and was now listening … trying to zero in on me.

  “Asher!” I waited for the assassin to make his move. The seconds ticked by. Where was he?

  My heartbeat quickened. I scanned the trees for any sign of movement. I could feel my hands become cold and clammy. It dawned on me that the assassin might not follow me on his motorcycle. Maybe he’d track me on foot. I could already be in his crosshairs, and he was taking aim at me.

  The leaves behind me rustled.

  I had to get out. Our plan had fallen apart.

  I turned and ran back toward Asher. We’d have to figure out another way to escape.

  That’s when I heard the engine roar back to life. I glanced over my shoulder and saw a headlight shining between the trees.

  The chase was on! This might actually work!

  I took off, adrenaline making me surge ahead.

  Behind me, I could hear the motorcycle getting closer. Branches were snapping. But I didn’t dare look back. I continued running as fast as I could, right past Asher and into a thicket of trees and bushes, stopping to hide behind a large boulder.

  The motorcyclist gunned the engine. That’s when Asher pulled the rope taut, creating the barrier. Catching the assassin unawares, the rope knocked him off the motorcycle and sent the bike skidding into the bushes.

  As soon as I heard the crash, I poked my head out. The motorcyclist was dragging himself over to where his gun had landed, but I got there first and kicked it away.

  “Don’t move!” Asher ordered, pointing his knife and holding his rock-in-sock in the other hand.

  That’s when I noticed the man’s left leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, clearly broken. Had I seen this a few days ago, I might have been horrified. But now all I felt was relief. Relief that he wouldn’t be able to chase after us.

  The man remained on the ground. He looked like an animal that wanted nothing more than to pounce on its prey.

  Asher took a few steps back. “You okay, Cassie?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” I lifted the motorcycle out of the bushes and saw that the front wheel was bent out of shape a little. I prayed that we’d still be able to use it. “Let’s go.”

  “You won’t get far.” The man spoke with a heavy accent, and he grimaced as he tried to move.

  “We’ll get far enough.” Asher walked over to me while keeping the knife trained on the assassin. He got on the bike and revved the engine.

  “Tell your bosses I’m not the threat,” I said, climbing onto the motorcycle behind Asher. “Sarah Bimington is the one they should be going after, not me. She has the spear, and if you kill me, then she’ll be one step closer to having Tobias use it again.”

  “Not my concern,” he answered. “And if the Hastati wanted you dead, then you wouldn’t still be talking.”

  “What does that—”

  Asher hit the gas, cutting off our conversation.

  As we rode through the forest, Asher struggled to keep the motorcycle upright. I could tell that the bike wouldn’t make it too far. We needed another way out. A few minutes later, I saw a hint of smoke in the sky.

  “Asher!” I tapped him on the shoulder. “Asher!”

  He slowed. “What?”

  “Do you have any idea where we’re going?”

  He stopped and turned off the motor. “No.”

  “We need to come up with a plan. This motorcycle isn’t going to make it much farther, and we need to figure out where to go.”

  Asher hit the kickstand, and we both slid off the motorcycle. “Agreed, but it’s not like your grandmother knows where we are and is going to show up in some decked-out car to rescue us. You have any ideas?”

  “Well, hiding out was obviously not a good plan. We just need to find a way back to Rome so we can tell Dame Elisabeth and my father what happened and locate Simone’s mom.” I walked up a small slope to get a better look at the area. “So what we need are direction
s back to Rome …”

  “Cassie, stay out of sight. We took care of that motorcycle guy, but the other Hastati could be anywhere.”

  Ignoring him, I walked a little closer to a small clearing.

  “Cassie!” Asher trotted up the slope to catch me. “Where are you going now?”

  I pointed to the bit of smoke rising up over a line of trees. “There. I think that might be from a chimney.”

  “It could be a trap.” Asher squinted as he stared through the trees. “The Hastati could already be there waiting for us.”

  “Fine. What do you suggest we do?”

  Asher didn’t have an answer.

  “That’s what I thought. C’mon, we can scope it out as we get a little closer.”

  I hurried along the edge of the clearing, trying to keep an eye on the smoke.

  “And what do you expect to do once we get there?” Asher asked. “Assuming they even have a car, do you expect them to just give us a ride back to Rome?”

  “No, but if it looks safe, then maybe we can use their phone and call my dad or Dame Elisabeth … see if they can meet us here. I mean, I know we don’t have a number for them, but we can leave a message with the Knights of Malta.”

  Asher stopped walking.

  I turned to see him standing there with his arms crossed. He didn’t have to say anything else. I knew he was thinking that the phones at the compound were probably bugged.

  “Okay, if not them, then who? Do you still have the number your uncle told you to call if something happened to him?”

  “No. That and your dad’s notebook were back at the cottage.” Asher’s shoulders slumped and he looked up at the sky. “We need to get someone that no one knows. That—”

  “Gisak!” I blurted out. “Don’t you know his number? We can call him. He can help us get back to Rome.”

  “I don’t know.” Asher rubbed the back of his neck. “He’ll want something in return.”

  “We’ll say it’s on credit. That we’ll pay him later,” I persisted. “It’s our best bet.”

  Asher nodded reluctantly. “Okay, I guess it can’t hurt to check out the place and see about calling him.”

  We continued through the forest until we were only a small field away from the source of the smoke. It was a two-story villa, clearly someone’s home. We hid behind some bushes for a while, watching for any activity. At one point, someone set a pie by an open window, but nothing else happened for a long time. It was getting late, and we weren’t any closer to leaving.

  “That’s it.” I leapt up and headed toward the clearing. “We need to see if they have a phone.”

  Asher grabbed me from behind and carried me back under the canopy of trees. “Are you crazy?” he asked. “Or do you have some sort of a death wish?”

  “The Hastati aren’t there. It’s obviously some family’s house. We need to get moving.”

  Asher took a deep breath. “Fine,” he sighed. “I’ll go see if they have a phone, but you stay hidden behind these trees, just in case. If I don’t come back in ten minutes, you take the motorcycle and go.”

  “I’m not going to leave you.”

  “Cassie, you don’t have a choice.”

  Asher didn’t get it … There was always a choice. But I wasn’t going to argue with him. “Whatever you say,” I replied, plunking myself down behind a bush that kept me hidden from view but still let me catch a glimpse of the villa.

  “Good.” Asher gave me an approving nod. “I’ll be right back.”

  He crossed the small field and approached the house. First, he peered through a side window and then went to the front door. As he lifted his hand to knock, the door opened. A middle-aged man stood there with a woman hovering behind him. They were too far away for me to hear what was being said, but the man nodded and motioned for Asher to come inside.

  Asher glanced back in my direction, then entered the villa.

  There was nothing left for me to do except wait. I listened to the sound of the wind through the trees. Felt the dry earth beneath my feet. Watched a trail of ants search for their own hidden treasure.

  I looked at the villa again.

  Had it been ten minutes? I didn’t have a watch, but it certainly felt like it.

  I cracked my knuckles.

  I grabbed a lock of my hair and wound it nervously through my fingers. What if Asher was in trouble and needed to be rescued? Maybe I should go over and peek through the windows. But if I did sneak over and there wasn’t a problem, I’d mess things up. Plus, who knew if it had been ten minutes.

  I was still arguing with myself when the door opened again. Asher waved at the woman and started walking back toward the forest.

  He passed by the bush where I was hiding and, without looking at me, said, “Don’t get up. Wait two minutes before you come meet me. They might be watching.”

  Before I could ask any questions he disappeared farther into the forest.

  This time I counted to 120, then made my way in the direction he’d gone. My heart pounded, and suddenly, I felt very small among all the trees. I tried to quiet my breathing so I could hear any twig snapping or leaf rustling.

  “Asher?” I whispered, searching the dim forest. All I saw were tree trunks, closing in around me.

  I took a few more steps, the dried leaves on the ground crunching beneath my feet.

  “Asher?” I whispered again and waited.

  “Yeah?”

  I spun around as he popped out from a tree right behind me.

  “What was that all about? Are you trying to freak me out?”

  Grinning, he walked around the motorcycle he had brought over. My immediate instinct was to wipe the smirk off his face, so I gave him a shove. “You want to fill me in on what happened?”

  “Didn’t mean to worry you.” He strolled over to a broken log, straddled it, and sat down. He opened up his backpack and tossed me a water bottle. “Got you this.”

  I gulped down the water, suddenly realizing how thirsty I’d been.

  “So what happened?”

  “I called Gisak. He’s on his way, but it’ll still take him an hour or two to get here. He’s going to meet us just down the road from the villa.”

  “Two hours!”

  “It’s the best he can do, and at least it’ll be dark by then.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” I didn’t like the idea of staying in one place for so long, but at least we now had a plan. “We should keep the motorcycle next to us, just in case.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  I took a seat next to him on the log. “So what was up with making me wait two minutes before coming back here?”

  “It was my cover story. I said my friends and I had been camping and our car broke down. Told them I needed to call my uncle and then head back to the campsite because my friends were waiting for me. Wouldn’t make sense if they happened to watch me go into the woods and see me talking with a girl, right?”

  “No, guess not.” I tucked my knees under my chin. “So we just wait?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “You think the Hastati are searching the forest for us?”

  “I don’t know. I thought for sure they would’ve sent back that helicopter to look for us.”

  “Guess we got lucky.”

  “Maybe, but I think something else is going on.” Asher grabbed a stick and started sharpening the end with his pocketknife. “We just haven’t figured out what it is.”

  We stayed quiet for a few minutes, Asher drawing squiggles in the dirt with the stick he’d fashioned into a spear.

  I folded my arms on top of my knees and rested my head on them. But I stayed on high alert, my entire body ready to make a run for it, if needed.

  Soon the last bits of light drifted away in the western sky. It would become pitch black in a matter of minutes.

  “Come on,” Asher said. “Gisak should be there by now, and it’ll be hard for someone to spot us now that the sun has gone down.” He reached down
a hand and helped me to my feet. We walked along the road, leaving the motorcycle hidden in the forest. The half-moon gave enough light that we could see the dirt road that lay about three hundred feet in front of us. Behind us, in the distance, I could see a small light coming from the villa where Asher had made the call.

  “Let’s see where he is.” Asher pulled out his flashlight and flicked it on and off a couple of times.

  Headlights down the road turned on and off.

  It was Gisak.

  We ran toward the car, Asher several strides ahead of me.

  Even in the darkness, I could see Gisak’s silhouette as he opened the driver’s side door and stepped out.

  “Jump in the back,” Gisak called out, motioning us both over as we approached. “You can tell me what’s happening when we get out of here.”

  Asher froze, and I ran right into him.

  “What—?” But then I saw why Asher had stopped so abruptly.

  My eyes widened with fear.

  The car’s passenger door had opened, and someone was getting out.

  Gisak was not alone.

  It only took a moment for me to recognize Gisak’s passenger: Simone. My traitorous, former best friend.

  Anger replaced fear.

  I couldn’t believe it! How dare she show her face again?

  Simone stood behind the car door, unsure of what to do next.

  I marched straight toward her, not even thinking of the fact that her mother might be there, too. “What are you doing here?” I yelled.

  Asher grabbed me by the arm, stopping me a few feet away from Simone. “Gisak, do you know what you’ve done?” he said, pulling me back. “Who you brought here?”

  “What?” Gisak looked at Simone, then at us, clearly confused. “Is she not your friend? She said you got separated and that you’d eventually call. That I was supposed to bring her with me.”

  “She betrayed us and played you!” Asher eyed the tree line. We would have to make a run for it and hope to find the busted motorcycle. “This is a trap!”

  “No, it’s not.” Simone moved away from the car. “I swear.” She took a step toward us, and we took three steps back. “You have to believe me. I thought my mother was going to help. I thought it was the only way … but I was wrong.”