“Hades, I’m working on it…give me two minutes…How the fuck should I know? I can’t do a million things at once…”
I place my hand on top of Argos’ and he looks over at me, “We got this,” I whisper to him, he needs to know that someone has his back. Cash knows that we have his back always, but at the moment Argos feels alone and I won’t let him feel like this.
Argos gives me a wink and gets back to the screen, “Hades, you outside?... I’m in and there are people in the house…No, it’s not the police. It doesn’t seem they know about it yet…I will call Tanner a little later…Hold on something is happening.”
I look over at the screen that Argos is looking at, the screens are going black then normal then black and normal again. What the hell is happening? We both stare at the black screens.
“The screens have gone blank…They shouldn’t be able to find the lair. I bounce the signal off so many satellites and I’m going to switch on the router to block anything coming in…they’re back on.”
I look at the screens again and see that we can see inside Simpson house. Just like I knew he would there he sits, “Hades he’s in the house…seven men with him…” Argos turns to me, “Lucy, downstairs second door to the right there is a laptop. Can you get that?” I nod and run to the room, taking a quick look I see the laptop and stop for a few seconds as I look around the room. I don’t think I have ever seen so many guns in my life, there is every weapon needed to man in here.
Running back to him, “Here,” I look at the laptop as he opens it but this doesn’t look like a normal laptop, it doesn’t have the keyboard like we normally have.
“Ready to go old school?” Is this how it all started for them? Argos did all this from one laptop, “And I’m in… they will only see what we see on the main screens, they won’t see you coming…but I won’t be able to keep it off for long…three minutes… round the back, second window when you round it…”
I walk so that I can stand behind Argos to see what is happening. I can see Cash, and then I have a look at Rafael playing around with his gun; waiting for Cash and I to walk in. I knew this was going to be a set up.
I watch Cash crawling through the window, with his gun out and ready. I feel my body shaking waiting for something to happen, “You know what? I think if you could do a background check on Mandelson that would really help.” Argos looks up at me, and he can see that this is getting too much for me. This may be normal to them both, but not me. This all still scares the hell out of me, but I also have to get used to this life if I want to be with Cash.
Walking back to the laptop, I try to find out as much information on Mandelson as I can. From where he used to live, to what he did this weekend. I’m going to save every picture that I can so get a good time line of what he has been doing too.
“They know you’re there…” I look up at Argos and he turns to the other screens, as he places his laptop on the desk, “I’m hacking in now to see if I can hear anything…he’s annoyed that Lucy isn’t anywhere to be seen…Lucy was right he was going to take her…Hades there are over twenty people in there, it might have worked…I’m calling Tanner… Hades there are too many fo…” I look at the screens as I hear gunshots. I see Cash firing, and Rafael behind one of his men, they won’t let anything happen to him. They will die before Cash can shoot him. I see Rafael laughing as Cash shoots, but like Argos said there is to many of them.
“Hades get the fuck out of there, I’ve sent Tanner a message with location, get ou…” Argos stops and I freeze on the stop as I watch Cash hitting the floor, they shot him.
“Get up, get up, get up.” I repeat over and over again.
“Hades, I’ve lost picture…Are you there…” Argos takes the ear piece out and all I can hear is a loud beeping noise. What the hell is happening? I look at Argos staring at the screen just like I was a second ago.
“Argos…”
“It will be fine, this place is bullet proof, and like last time I have a way out if anything did happen, Hades...I know he will be fine, he would have gotten out of there. I know he will.” Argos tells me. But at the same time he’s telling himself too, because he looks worried. Not worried about what will happen to us, worried about his best friend.
At this moment, Argos is just looking at the screen. Like he’s lost and doesn’t know what he is supposed to do. I pull the chair and my laptop closer to him, “You try hacking back into the house. If you tell me how, I will hack in to see if we can look at any cameras outside the house.” I tell him. I need him to get back in the zone. I don’t care how mad Cash is with Argos, he needs to know that Argos loves him. Right now Argos seems like he’s lost his right arm.
“It would be quicker if I do it,” Argos pulls himself back out of the daze that he was in. Sits up and starts tapping away. As annoying as that sound is, this is the first time I want him to tap faster and louder. “I need to find out who the hell has hacked me too, they seem to be locking me out of everything.”
I grab my laptop. I want to help, I want to do something but I have no idea what I can do. “Lucy this is the license plate for the car that was parked around the corner from the house, it’s still there. Put it in here and if it moves or gets picked up by a camera we will know.” Pulling his laptop closer to me, I get to typing.
“Did you call Tanner?”
“I’m about to tell him what’s just happened, so that he knows we are a man down, and if he finds anything that he has to call me.” Argos grabs his phone and walks to the other room. Why he couldn’t just talk in front of me I don’t know, but I’ve learned to trust them both.
I look at all the boxes that appear on my screen, of the roads around the house. I look at each one until I spot the car that Argos was talking about; you can’t see anything but the back of the car. Even if anyone would get in it, you wouldn’t be able to tell who. Because there is a massive bush in front of it hiding everything.
Tapping my fingers waiting for something to happen with it, I see Argos sitting back down. “Tanner will be there in two minutes.”
“Argos, what is the worst case scenario at the moment?” I don’t want to think about it but I know what Rafael is like, I know what sick things go on his head.
“We don’t really know anything about him. If anyone knows, it’s you. But he might not have Cash.” Argos tells me not taking his eyes off the screen, “I’m back in.” looking up at the screen. The house is empty, it was a blank screen for a good five minutes and anything could have happened in that time. Cash might have gotten out of the window, or fought them and ran. I know he’s shot and will need help, so he might not have gotten that far.
“Do you think we should go to the house and see what we can find?” I ask.
“No, we both have rules. If we get split up, the lair is the safe house. If something happens to one of us, we carry on with the mission, we both said that all this is not for nothing,” Argos looks over to me quickly then back to the screen.
“Not being rude, but all this you do, it doesn’t work if one of you isn’t in the picture.” Argos is the brains and Cash is the machine, one can’t work without the other.
“Well until I see his dead body, Cash is alive and I will carry on.” Argos tells me, and with that tone I know that I need to stop talking and let him do what it is he is doing.
Walking into the kitchen I decide to grab some hot coffee for us both. I lean on the counter as I wait for the coffee. But I watch Argos hard at work and think about what has just happened.
I know that Cash won’t go down without a fight, and every part of my body says that he’s alive. We will get a phone call or he will walk through the door. I have no idea who is on the top of Cash and Argos’ kill list, but I know that Rafael has jumped to number one.
Closing my eyes for a moment, I go back to the day me and my mom both had our first girl’s day out. The way she laughed as we both looked like baked potatoes as we were having a body wrap. She needed to pee but she was trapped
in foil. She laughed so hard she was crying, and that’s the moment it hits me. I’m never going to see my mother again. I still have to let her go. I still haven’t let my mind or body shut down with the anger and grief I still have. The only thing I hope is that my dad will wait until this is over, and then do the funeral. I at least need to give my mother that; being there and getting to say my final goodbye.
Chapter 18
Cash
What the fuck was she thinking staying home with Argos? Does she not understand that I’ve lost her once and that if anything happens to her again I will lose what’s left of my damn mind? She makes me crazy enough as it is. Fucking bullshit, no matter how hard I try and forget what has transpired my sleep is invaded with fucking nightmares. I’m holding my child in my arms and he’s snatched away from me. My baby boy, who looks so much like me and his mother, is snatched out of my hands and all I feel is the emptiness. I wake up in a cold sweat. When I think about Lucy and her having the miscarriage all I want to do is kill someone.
She’s right though, she told me that she thinks that Raphael will be here and I have the same thoughts. He always seems to be one step ahead of us and I fucking hate it! This bastard has hacked into our secure servers; he’s messed with Ruby, Argos, Lucy, and me. I’ve had enough; he needs to die and fucking soon. Although, if he wants to take out Mandelson and Payne beforehand it would save me the fucking hassle. But that means having this fucker alive and pissing me off a hell of a lot longer than I would like.
I park half a block away from Simpson’s house, I don’t need to alert anyone that I’m coming. As I approach the house, “Argos?” I ask into the mic that we have, fucking safer than cell phones.
“Yeah, I’m here.” He sounds distracted and I know it’s because he’s scrambling to get everything done that I demanded.
“Who’s here?” My gut is screaming at me that can only mean one thing, I’m not alone! Damn, that asshole must be here.
“I can’t get into his system.” He mumbles as that fucking sound fills my ears.
“What the fuck? Why can’t you?” I bite out, I hate going in blind!
“I don’t know!” Great, just what we fucking need. I do some recon around the perimeter of the house; fucking hate that we have no eyes inside. That needs to be rectified immediately, “Hades, I’m working on it.”
“Work harder!”
“Give me two minutes.” What the fuck?
“Two minutes? What the hell? Come on Argos, even you’re not that stupid. Surely there’s a way around this? Something a bit faster! Are they in the house?” If he can fucking tell me that I’ll be able to get this shit over and done with.
“How the fuck should I know? I can’t do a million things at once.” What the fuck is he doing besides twiddling his thumbs as I wait like a fucking idiot? “Hades, you outside?”
“Where the hell do you think I am? Of course, I’m fucking outside, I’m waiting on you to get some sort of feed into that fucking house!” I hate stupid fucking questions.
“I’m in and there are people in the house.” Of fucking course there is, nothing is ever easy.
“Is it the cops?” Wishful thinking but I don’t see any squad cars so I highly doubt it.
“No, it’s not the police it doesn’t seem they know about it yet.”
“Probably eating donuts. Inform them.” I reach the back of the house, there isn’t a fucking light on in the house so I can’t see inside.
“I will call Tanner a little later.”
“How….”
“Hold on something is happening.” The fucker cuts me off, whatever is happening better be worth cutting me off for. “The screens have gone blank!”
“Fuck! Is the lair compromised?”
“They shouldn’t be able to find the lair. I bounce the signal off so many satellites and I’m going to switch on the router to block anything coming in.”
“Why are you speaking double Dutch?” I didn’t understand a word he just fucking said.
“They’re back on.” Finally, some good fucking news. “Hades he’s in the house.”
He means Raphael and I’m not surprised, “Is he alone?”
I already know his answer before he says it. “Seven men with him…”
“Fuck me running; I knew this was too good to be true! I bet they’re even watching the feed. Can you do your geeky shit and make them see what we want them to see?”
“Ready to go back to old school?” I can hear the excitement in his voice, it’s been too long since we’ve gone back to the basics.
Hell fucking yes I am! This is what I live for. I thrive of these situations, where the outcome is like a flip of a coin. One thing is for sure, no matter what happens, I won’t be going down without a fight. This fucker is going down. “And I’m in.” Argos exclaims.
“Good, so it’s done?”
He makes a mmmhmm noise and I know that I don’t have his full attention. “They will only see what we see on the main screens they won’t see you coming.”
“Sounds good.” I start to make my way back around to the front of the house.
“But I won’t be able to keep it off for long.” He sounds hesitant and that puts me on edge.
“How long?”
“Three minutes.” Fuck, it’s doable but there’s no room for error.
“Round the back, second window when you round it…” He starts instructing me.
“Thank fuck no one else is listening, they may get the wrong idea.” I do as he says and walk back toward the second window. With my gun still in hand, I keep my finger on the trigger. I crawl through the window. Fuck, the things I do! I should have blown down the fucking door instead of crawling through this shitty window. “They know your there…”
“Fuck, of course they do! What’s happening?” I make it into the house and make my way down the hallway. It’s eerily quiet and as I know that these fuckers are in here it’s just annoying. Instead of them being spread out and being easy pickings, it means that they’re grouped together and picking them off without getting shot is going to be difficult.
“I’m hacking in now to see if I can hear anything…” The worry in his voice pisses me off, he should have learned by now how to hide that sort of shit. No doubt Lucy’s sitting beside him, he should know better. “He’s annoyed that Lucy isn’t anywhere to be seen.”
“That fucker better stay the hell away from her, he’s done enough damage as it is.” My anger starts to come to the surface, the sooner this fucker is dead the fucking better we’ll all be.
“Lucy was right. He was going to take her.” His voice is low, but he sounds distracted.
“He’s not fucking getting her.” I bite out. I’m getting close to them, I can hear movement.
“Hades there are over twenty people in there, it might have worked…” His nervousness is showing.
Fuck, that’s way more than I had anticipated!
“I’m calling Tanner.” He’s panicking now.
“What the fuck is Tanner going to do? He’s not even anywhere near here. I’m going in.”
“Hades there are too many fo…” He stops talking because when I kick the door open I’m assaulted with a hail of gunfire. I shoot back as precisely and as quickly as I can. I take down, three, four, five guys before I manage to see Raphael. He’s tucked behind his men. They’re surrounding him as though he’s something special, something honorable. I feel the heat of a bullet whiz past my ear, fuck that was close. As I return fire I hear that fucking asshole laughing, the sooner he dies the better.
“Hades get the fuck out of there. I’ve sent Tanner a message with location, get out!” The bullet that hits my chest and knocks me to the floor stops Argos’ talking, fuck that hurts. “Hades, I’ve lost picture…Are you there?” He sounds frantic but there’s not much I can do, I’ve been shot in my fucking ribs and it hurts like a motherfucker. I can’t move! Fuck!
“End him. I want him gone. Once he’s out of the way I’ll be able to
find my queen.” Thank fuck, he doesn’t know where Lucy and Argos are right now. Which means, Argos was right. He’s kept the lair offline and out of sight; they’re safe for now.
Most of the men leave the room and before Raphael leaves the room, he stops right in front of me. I tense as I know what’s about to come, he lifts his boot and brings it down against my head. Fuck, the crunching of bone along with the wetness and the metallic taste of blood in my mouth tells me that I’ve now a broken nose; if not more. The fucker spits on me before leaving. “Wait until we’ve gone, I don’t need the cops here.”
Fucking moron. Waiting until he leaves means I’m only up against the two fuckers that are left. He should give me more fucking credit than that.Unless these two assholes he’s left me with time has expired, then the bastard’s getting me to do his dirty work. Prick. It doesn’t take long before the rest of them leave. They’re in a damn hurry, that’s for sure. I can hear them speed off, their tires screeching as they do.
I lift my head and see that the two douchebags Raphael left are fucking stupid, both standing together looking out the window. Assholes left me with my gun, which I lift up and fire two shoots. My body is jolted back with the recoil, fuck! I’m in so much pain, I can barely see straight. Both fuckers are down, it’s time to leave here. I know that Argos would have called Tanner and that's one thing I don’t need right now, I need to get the fuck up off this floor and leave.
***
I sway as the dizziness hits me full force, I’m losing a lot of blood and I know that if I don’t get medical attention soon I’m in trouble. There’s only one option and that’s get to the nearest safe house. Argos and I aren’t stupid, we both know the score. With this job either one of us could die at any stage and if that were to happen we’ve a contingency plan. The other continues the plan to bring the fucking pedophiles down, to make sure that Lucy is safe no matter what. That’s our number one priority; making sure these fuckers can’t hurt anymore little girls.
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