by Michael Todd
Marcus slowly opened one eye and sweat rolled down his forehead. “Hickok?”
She sighed. “Yes, you fool. Get your robot-loving cock out here.”
He stood and placed his weapon on the table. Now that the whole thing was over, his legs shook alarmingly, so much so that he tripped over a box in the pitch dark and cussed. “Dammit. I can’t see a fucking thing down here.”
Billie rolled her eyes. “Come toward my voice.”
Marcus slid his hands across the table and paused when he felt a flashlight. He gripped it and tapped it against his leg until it flickered on. “Now I find your useless ass.” He shone the light over to the stairwell and shuddered as Hickok dropped the hatch and folded her arms over her chest. She tapped her foot meaningfully and stared at the trap door. He yelled, “I was talking about the flashlight, not your ass!”
She smirked and opened the hatch again. “I was about to leave you down there. I decided you could wait for the next round of agents to come and try to murder you. I mean, you set up the most fabulous security system.”
He grunted defensively as he hurried toward the stairs. “I see you’re still a sarcastic bitch. I didn’t have much time and so set up something to make sure I knew when someone was coming. I have a ton of shit due to be delivered to me in like two days. Don’t judge!”
She sniffed. “I can judge all I want to. A hamster could have figured out the security system you set up. He could have ridden in on the back of a fucking cat and not set anything off.”
Marcus’ hand appeared out of the dark. She grabbed it and hauled him up the steps.
“I’ll have you know, those two actually set my perimeter alarm off out back.”
Billie nodded. “Right, I said a hamster, I didn’t say a brainless set of meat sacks. I saw the perimeter line from a block away—in a tree, with binoculars.”
Marcus frowned and crawled out on his hands and knees. “I made do with what I had. It was not my idea to start freeing agents without their okay, remember that. It left me with only two choices—either make it work alone or try my luck in the Zoo, and that was my last option. That place seemed—and still seems—scarier than two of the organization's agents. Hands down. Any day.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Well, at least the Zoo has a town and no one fucks with you there. These two idiots would have killed the fuck out of you and then where would you be?”
He groaned as she helped him to his feet. “Probably in a nice restful state in the afterlife. Instead, here I am, standing in my burning—oh, shit.”
Marcus threw chairs hastily out of the way as he lunged to the sink and retrieved a fire extinguisher from the cabinet. Billie smirked and leaned against one of the overturned tables as he frantically sprayed the small flames sparked by the exploding bullets. “Yes, by all means. Save the rubble.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “At least the cops won’t come running to investigate a fire. Aside from the fact that I don’t know if this is explainable, it will buy us time to get away before someone discovers what happened.”
He finished his task, set the extinguisher down, and wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. “Okay, so you came, and you saved me from the very people we thought we’d tricked. Obviously, that scheme was a total failure. What now?”
Billie pursed her lips and avoided his glance. “I don’t know what you expected me to do. We wanted out and so I made a choice.”
Marcus shook his head. “And as much as I appreciate it, it’s now totally out of hand. They didn’t believe our deaths—big surprise.”
He turned and gestured at the two bodies, one without a head. “And this will totally prove their point. They want us dead because they see us as a threat.”
She wrinkled her nose stubbornly. “They attacked first. Had they left us alone, all would have been good.”
With a low curse, Marcus grabbed Billie by the arms. “But all is not good. They won’t stop.”
Hickok pulled away and waved her hands dismissively. “It was worth a shot. If I hadn’t done anything we would still be working there, still killing people who did not deserve it, and still wondering if we would ever survive if we left. Now, we have our answer.”
Marcus blinked at her. “Uh, yeah. We definitely have our answer. You will survive but the first time I am alone and you are out of reach, I will be a goner. And they will make sure to chop me up small enough that no amount of secret serum will bring me back from the dead.”
She turned and stared at him. While he wasn’t very good in situations where his own life was in jeopardy, it wasn’t like him to be quite so forceful in his responses. She realized that he was likely freaking out a little, but she also sensed a change in him. It was a little unsettling to discover that the Marcus in her head was perhaps different to the living, breathing version that time and life and death experiences had subtly shaped since they had last spent time together. Still, now wasn’t the time to explore that.
“The way I see it, that only leaves us one choice at this point. Obviously, I can’t leave you to do your own thing anymore. Not until all of this is figured out. We need to go to a place they aren’t willing to nuke from orbit and where death happens all the time.”
He stared blankly at her. “You’re taking me to the Zoo, aren’t you?”
She responded with a huge smile. “Yup.”
Marcus groaned and slumped his shoulders. “But I don’t want to.”
Billie shook her head. “Fine, I’ll leave you here with the corpses. Give the organization my regards.”
With a dismissive shrug, she turned to walk away and he ran up to grab her arm. “Okay, okay. Do you have a plan to get us from here to there?”
She smirked. “Do you have any secret agent disguise stuff in here?”
Marcus thought for a moment and grinned. He walked over to the pile of what remained of his furniture and grunted as he tossed the table off a large box. With a key he removed from his sock, he opened the chest and stood back. She peered into it and discovered a ton of stuff from the old building. “You sly dog. You stole this.”
He shrugged. “I had fortuitously mailed a bunch of it to my PO box since it was being decommissioned. I thought I could play around with it and picked it up before I came here.”
Billie rolled her eyes. “Fortuitous my ass. That was how they tracked you, genius. Did it even occur to you that they would have surveillance in place?”
His expression shifted between shock, disbelief, and chagrin and he shook his head and muttered a low curse. She decided now wasn’t the time for a reminder of investigative techniques, grabbed one of the chairs, and pushed him into it. “Well, we have the goods now, so let’s get to work because you can’t go out without a disguise. By now, your ugly mug will be in every face recognition software known to man—alongside mine, of course.”
She selected what she needed from the box and laid it out in front of her. One piece at a time, she began to transform him into someone completely different. He flinched as she glued a set of eyebrows over his natural ones. “Ouch. That shit hurts.”
Hickok rolled her eyes as she pressed hard and released. “I should have simply shot you in the dark and left you dead. Do you realize how much of a pain in the ass it is to save you?”
Marcus hissed as she dragged a wig over his head and transformed his dark brown hair to salt and pepper. “I guess you’re right. It would have been much easier to merely dispose of me and go about your business. Personally, if I were in your shoes, the thought would definitely have crossed my mind.”
She smiled as she began to apply a coat of makeup. “Oh, trust me, it definitely crossed mine. Now, sit quietly for a moment and let me get these wrinkles in place so you will no longer be Marcus. The goop might have given you a younger and more studly look, but you’re still very much yourself, merely a much younger version. But, with a few deft strokes, you’ll be more Professor Abernathy, PhD, obsessed with Iranian butterflies.”
Marcus
chuckled and smiled for the first time since she had arrived. His shoulders relaxed and he closed his eyes as the makeup sponge pulled gently across his skin. Billie stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth, closed one eye, and tilted her head to the side in concentration. She put a few more touches of makeup on him and sat back, studied him intently, and finally gave him a satisfied nod. “Perfect. Now you could be my father—or even grandfather since my dying has significantly decreased my age.”
He suddenly grabbed her wrist. “Thank you. I’m serious. You saved my life and I was prepared to die. I know you have my back, but I won’t lie, there was a moment there—”
Billie leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “I always have your back, Marcus. I owe you for all those times you helped me.”
Holly came out of the bathroom and rubbed her hair with a towel. It was mid-day but she’d felt like she smelled terrible once she’d returned home from FUBAR. She’d jumped in the shower and simply stood there for a long while as the hot water ran over her until it turned lukewarm. The tension had melted away and swirled down the drain by the time she stepped out of the shower, she could tell. It was exactly what she needed. Those moments of relaxation were few and far between but she didn’t expect the sense of release to be gone as soon as she took a seat at her desk.
Below her, what sounded like a jackhammer shattered the silence. She scowled and reached for her coffee, took a sip, and set it down with exaggerated patience. Amanda had every right to use any of her tools when and how she wanted. It had simply never been that loud before.
She scrabbled in her desk drawer for a set of earbuds and connected them to her computer, scanned through her music, and finally picked an album and pressed play. The music started immediately, and she listened closely for a moment. She could still hear the tools but at least not as loudly. Satisfied that a compromise had been reached, she put her fingers to the keys, collected her thoughts, and tried to focus as best she could. She had to get back to work and start pricing out the things the team would need for the black ops project.
As soon as she began typing, her desk and almost everything else in the room began to shake. She stopped and glanced irritably around her. It seemed that every time the armorer did whatever it was she was doing, it would shake the hell out of her room. She scowled and tried to focus again. Again, she had no sooner resumed typing when the tool went to work again and almost knocked her coffee from her desk.
Holly leaned back and groaned. “There is no way I’ll get anything done like this.”
She pushed up from the chair and headed to the door. It was tempting to simply leave her keys and the door unlocked, given that she’d only be about ten steps away. Still, ten steps might as well be miles in a crisis. She locked the door and headed downstairs. When she reached the garage, the noise was almost deafening. She turned the corner and stopped to stare at Amanda where she stood on a stool with an upside-down tool. It was, in fact, a jackhammer, but the woman used it to attack the ceiling—which was also the location of the apartment’s floor.
Holly sighed and walked forward, holding her sweater closed. A cold draft snuck through the garage from the cracked open doors up front. She stepped close enough to the armorer to try to get her attention but not close enough to be knocked out by falling debris.
The woman didn’t notice her, and she twiddled her thumbs impatiently before she finally cupped her hands around her mouth. “Amanda!”
She didn’t hear her. Holly wrinkled her nose, walked a little closer, and tried again. “Amanda!”
She waved her hand until finally, she caught her attention. The armorer set the jackhammer down and pulled the goggles back, her muscles tight and her near exhaustion obvious. “Oh, hey. Sorry about the noise.”
Holly shook her head. “It’s okay. But I did wonder what in the world you were doing. I didn’t know you had plans to renovate this place.”
Amanda shook her head and climbed off the stool. “I’m not. You talked to me about security and I had an idea. I’m making a getaway door.”
“Ohhhh. Okay. But where does it get away to?”
Her friend grimaced at the mess. “Well, I did some drawings and studied the buildings. I’ll have it where you can jump down and exit through the back of my area. I share a wall with a small warehouse behind me which I own and rent out to different people. When I came up with the idea, I told them I would take over a third of the back area and put a wall up.”
Holly looked at her in confusion. “A wall?”
The armorer patted a pile of wood and drywall on the table beside her. “Yeah. It’ll be a place to either hide or leave onto the back street. That way, you always have some way to get out if you are in danger. It’s not that wild to think that someone could find out about what you have and try to either kill you or steal your information. You won’t always necessarily be able to fight them. This will also help if there is a military operation to seize your stuff. You can at least run and have a chance to escape without anyone realizing until you already have a head start.”
Holly put her hands on her hips and grinned. “That’s a great idea. Thanks for doing this.”
Amanda shrugged. “I figure it’s not only for you but for anyone who happens to be here at that moment. I don’t have a problem jetting the hell out of here but I won’t be murdered for a recipe. No matter how good that shit is.”
She chuckled. “I hear you.”
Her phone buzzed and she pulled it from her pocket and pressed the button to open the notifications. There was a text from an unknown number, which she knew was Billie. On my way back. I have a friend in tow, couldn’t leave him there. Will be with you in about 48 hours.
Holly groaned and shook her head. Amanda frowned. “What?”
“Billie’s on her way back, and she’s bringing Marcus—I assume so, at least. Where will we put someone who can’t be seen?”
Chapter Five
JB stood in the back room, pulled bottles of liquor out of the boxes, and lined them up on the shelf. The inventory had come in and Paula had sent him back to handle it. He didn’t mind, though. It was a chance to be alone with his thoughts. It had been nothing but go, go, go since he came back. He didn’t want to complain about it, but it was definitely a little exhausting—and painful with his leg.
Dan walked around the corner and put his hands out. “There you are. Paula said you were back here.”
JB glanced at his friend with jubilance in his eyes as he pushed another bottle onto the shelf. “What’s up, man?”
The other man sighed and leaned against the wall. “Not much. I thought I would come and see how everything was going for you. It’s obviously more than a small change in your life.”
The bar owner jeered. “That’s for damn sure. It came out of nowhere, but it had to be done. I guess, all in all, I’m doing fine. I’ve kept up with stories and realized that when they are wasted, if I screw up, they simply assume they’ve already told me theirs. So, if I can keep everyone drunk, I should be good.”
Dan chuckled. “That’s one way to do it.”
JB hesitated and turned toward him. “You know, there is one thing. I don’t know why, but it feels weird staying in Old JB’s quarters. I know they were mine and everything, but I feel almost like a fraud.”
The other man rubbed his chin. “You know, I’m sure that Holly and the others could use more space and better security. You could always rent it out to them and use hers for the time being. Do a little switch up.”
The front door opened and Paula called out, “Oh, bartender, you have a guest.”
Dan snickered and followed JB out before he moved to his usual seat. The man was new and looked like he was involved with the media in some way. He had a camera on his shoulder and normal civilian clothes from the “other side.” JB smiled and put a napkin down in front of him. “What can I get for you?”
The man gave him a crooked smile and set down a twenty. “I heard that there was a bartender here who could g
uess the best drink for a person.”
JB stared at the newcomer for a moment and shifted his gaze to Dan. His friend could see him sweat as he grappled with the idea of throwing caution to the wind and simply going with it. It was something he could do, and even more so, it was something he wanted to do. That was one of his favorite parts of owning a bar.
Dan gave the visitor a tight-lipped smile. “Unfortunately, you are thinking about Old JB, who passed about a month ago now.”
The man seemed disappointed so Dan raised his hands. “But hold on. This here is his nephew and spitting image. That was a regular occurrence here at FUBAR, so why don’t we help New JB so we can bring it back? Give him a little help to get him started, and he will give it his best shot.”
The man eyed them both and finally nodded. “All right. I can give it a shot. Let’s see. My clue is…I am not a merc, and I don’t like Chambord.”
JB thought for a moment before he turned and walked to where all the liquor was displayed. He put his hand on his chin and scanned the bottles as he created something powerful in his mind. When he had set the drink in stone, he took a glass and began to mix. The other two men watched him from behind. Dan tried to peek around him but he couldn’t see anything.
Finally, he was done. He turned with the drink—a bright green color—and set it down in front of the guy, who looked at it with a raised eyebrow before he shrugged and reached for a straw.
He leaned down and took a sip, then another and another. “Wow,” he said finally and stared at JB with wide eyes. “This is freaking delicious. For not being the guy who always did it, you are a superstar. I would drink this thing anywhere.”
JB rubbed the back of his neck and glanced at Dan, who gave him a worried look. “Yeah, I always wanted to work with my uncle and planned to come out here as soon as I could. There was always talk in the family about how he could mix drinks, so I worked hard to learn it on my own. The plan was to impress my amazing uncle so much, he’d let me stay and work with him, but he died before I had the chance.”