The Archer

by Abigail Roux

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Thiago asked in heavily accented English as

  he panted slightly and stared at all of them in disbelief.

  What were they doing? They were having lunch, that’s what they were

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  doing. Not tear-assing through a crowded plaza drawing all kinds of attention to

  themselves. Brandt got the feeling from the tone of Thiago’s voice that he was out of breath not from the small amount of exertion, but from agitation. Severe agitation.

  “What are you talking about? What happened?” Carl asked tensely.

  Thiago gaped at them and pointed off in the direction the redheaded man had

  gone. “That was Gray Kincaid you were conversing with so politely!” Thiago hissed in disbelief.

  “The guy from the list?” Remy asked in surprise, finally showing a reaction

  to Thiago and Shawn’s obvious concern. “The one you worked with in Florida?”

  “Yes!” Thiago yelled. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  “We were… he was… uh…,” Remy stuttered as he tried to avoid Shawn’s

  piercing eyes and explain.

  Brandt had noticed the discomfort between the two of them earlier, and it

  disturbed him to no end. Remy seemed distracted, nervous even, when Shawn was

  around. Shawn just seemed distant. It was as if they weren’t certain of how to deal with one another now that someone else was in the picture.

  “We’d never seen him before. How were we supposed to recognize him?”

  Carl asked in vexation.

  “I got it,” Nikolaus said excitedly as he smacked Remy in the arm and then

  looked around at them all with wide, excited eyes.

  “Ow!” Remy huffed accusingly as he rubbed his bicep and looked at

  Nikolaus in irritation. “Got what?” he asked distractedly as he looked up at Thiago and Shawn, who were both still panting slightly.

  Brandt watched Remy’s transformation in fascination. As he looked up at

  them, it was like he pushed a button and went from a slightly absent-minded young man to a cold-blooded killer in no time flat. His eyes went completely black and his jaw clenched tensely. He looked truly threatening just sitting there and Brandt

  shivered. Brandt didn’t know what Remy had seen in Shawn or Thiago’s expressions

  to cause the change, but it was obviously important. Then just as suddenly as it had come, the killer was gone and Remy was back.

  “We have to get inside. Back to the flat. I need my computer,” Nikolaus said

  hurriedly as he started gathering the bits and pieces of paper they had spread across the table.

  Remy lunged forward and grabbed Nikolaus’s arm with a speed that alarmed

  even Brandt and Brandt watched them in fascination. This was really the first time Brandt had paid attention to Remy and Nikolaus as a unit, and what he saw made him raise an interested eyebrow. They seemed intimate, which was especially odd after the Jekyll and Hyde performance Brandt just witnessed. As Remy pulled Nikolaus closer to him and spoke in low tones, Brandt watched Shawn for a reaction.

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  “This is where discretion is called for, Niko,” Remy murmured as he put his

  lips just a breath away from Nikolaus’s ear. Brandt saw Shawn tense noticeably and inhale sharply as Remy nodded at Nikolaus and rubbed his arm soothingly to let him know he wasn’t admonishing, just advising. “You got the message?” Remy whispered

  inquiringly.

  Nikolaus nodded and brushed his cheek against Remy’s lips tenderly before

  allowing himself to be gently nudged back into his chair. Remy ran an affectionate hand through Nikolaus’s hair and smiled at him proudly as the rest of them watched disconcertedly. There was a level of intimacy in their interaction that Brandt

  recognized as one stemming from physical contact and not just mental understanding, and he could see that Shawn saw it too.

  Shawn’s jaw clenched as he took a seat around the little table beside

  Nikolaus, and Brandt watched him until their eyes connected. Brandt tilted his head inquiringly when Shawn’s hard green eyes landed on him, but Shawn frowned

  slightly and shook his head. Brandt wasn’t sure what the headshake meant, but he

  didn’t need a written sign to tell him that Shawn was upset.

  Brandt turned his attention back to Remy and Nikolaus. Remy was standing

  now, bending down over Nikolaus and speaking to him in hushed tones. Brandt’s

  attention was torn between Remy and Shawn, and he almost missed it when Remy

  straightened quickly and tugged at Thiago’s arm.

  “Come on Thi, let’s get after him,” Remy said. Without another word to the

  rest of them the two of them darted off after Gray, and in seconds they simply

  dematerialized into the scenery. As much as Brandt hated to admit it at that moment, he admired Remy and Thiago’s skills. He was even slightly jealous of them. Brandt had never been able to simply disappear like that. His stature and presence were far too conspicuous.

  Shawn was leaning forwards and looking after the two men as if he wanted

  to follow. Nikolaus was already chattering excitedly. Brandt and Carl shared a

  slightly lost, exasperated look and settled back to observe.

  “I’ve got it,” Nikolaus kept saying over and over. For perhaps the first time

  in his recent memory, Brandt didn’t really care about the mission. He didn’t care about the messages or the Organization or any of that mess. He focused his

  considerable attention solely on Shawn. The man looked disturbed. Pissed off, even.

  Brandt wanted to comfort him somehow, but he knew there was really only one

  person that could do that. And it wasn’t Brandt.

  “Nikolaus,” Shawn said in a low voice.

  “Hmm?”

  “You’ve cracked the Archer’s code? Is that what you’re saying?” Shawn

  asked carefully.

  “Yes! I–”

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  “Not now,” Shawn said sharply as he stood up and looked around the plaza

  warily. “Not here.”

  “But Remy told me to tell all of you what I–”

  “Remy’s not in charge here,” Shawn snapped, startling all three of them as

  he glared down at them all in turn.

  Brandt was shocked. Shawn had never snapped like that. Even when his

  pants caught fire, he’d maintained a modicum of good humor regarding the situation.

  Had his discussion with Remy the night before gone that badly? What had they said to one another? Had Shawn told Remy about Brandt? Or was it something to do with

  Nikolaus and the time he’d spent with Remy? Perhaps both, Brandt decided as he

  observed the tense, angry set of Shawn’s jaw as he glared at Nikolaus. “Now gather this shit up and let’s get back to the flat,” Shawn ordered as he started gathering the stacks of paper.

  None of them questioned the order, though Brandt wondered what would

  happen if Remy and Thiago ran into trouble. Would they know to return to the flat?

  Would they think something had gone wrong when they came back to find the table

  vacated? Well, Shawn was more aware of how Remy would operate than was Brandt,

  and so Brandt followed along obediently regardless of his questions.

  When they returned to the flat, Brandt watched Shawn uneasily, as did Carl

  and Nikolaus. He stomped around the flat like a caged lion, tossing his things

  haphazardly onto the table and slamming doors and heading straight for the kitchen after growling something incoherent about needing a drink.

  “Shawn?” Carl finally ventured
when Shawn stomped back into the main

  room.

  Shawn stared at him, but Carl held his ground and stared right back

  unerringly. Brandt was proud of his friend just then. He didn’t think he would have been able to stare Shawn down, especially knowing he was probably the inadvertent cause of Shawn’s evil mood in the first place. Finally, Shawn seemed to deflate and he looked at all of them ashamedly.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmured in disgust. “I don’t like being outsmarted

  repeatedly by this bastard, it’s grating,” he huffed as he threw himself down on the sofa and rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry, Niko. I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that.

  Now tell us about this code.”

  Brandt turned his full attention on Nikolaus, and, for once, it didn’t seem to

  intimidate the other man. Whether it was that Brandt spent the night before holding Nikolaus like a teddy bear or the excitement caused by the other man’s revelation, Brandt didn’t know. As long as something worked. Brandt was tired of being the

  scary one.

  “Whatshisname gave us the key,” Nikolaus started excitedly.

  “Kincaid?” Shawn asked in surprise.

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  “He did?” Carl asked in the same tone at almost the same time. Nikolaus

  nodded eagerly and retrieved Remy’s crispy piece of paper.

  “Look it,” he said as he pointed to the message.

  “He told us that he was listening to a song called Dixie,” Nikolaus explained for Shawn’s benefit. “And then–”

  “Dixie?” Shawn asked in alarm. “He said that? How did Remy react?”

  Nikolaus shrugged as if he didn’t see the importance. “He just mumbled

  ‘fascinating’ in that sarcastic voice of his, you know, the one he uses when he’s not really paying attention?”

  Brandt watched a wave of melancholy flood Shawn’s countenance and he

  looked away.

  “But then when he got up to leave–”

  “Remy left?” Shawn asked in confusion.

  “No! The guy, the… Kincaid! He left when we bitched at him about his

  music, but he left this,” Nikolaus continued as he waved the Sudoku puzzle in the air.

  “I’m almost positive it’s the key! It’s the cipher that we were missing!” he finished excitedly.

  “I don’t… I don’t think I understand,” Brandt said slowly when he was sure

  that Nikolaus was done.

  “When we were in… I don’t remember, Marietta maybe, Remy talked about

  the different things you use to decipher codes. This was right before we got drunk and thrown in jail.”

  “Jail?” Shawn asked in surprise.

  “Yeah. Anyway, these Sudoku puzzles are released on a daily basis in

  places. Newspapers, websites. This is the New York Times Sudoku puzzle from the

  day before the message was sent, look at the date,” Nikolaus told them excitedly. His accent was so thick he may as well have been speaking German.

  “Jail?” Shawn repeated disbelievingly.

  “Are you paying attention?” Nikolaus asked in exasperation.

  “I was until I heard jail,” Shawn answered distractedly.

  “It was nothing,” Nikolaus said with a swipe of his hand. “Indecent

  something or other. Remy enjoyed it a little too much, in my opinion. But that’s

  beside the point! Look!” Nikolaus waved the puzzle around. “They use the Sudoku

  puzzles to decipher the messages.”

  “So this is the key we need to decipher this particular message?” Carl asked

  as he pointed at the written message Remy had carried with him.

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  “Well, no. I think this is the puzzle we need. But we’d have to do the

  answers ourselves,” Nikolaus answered.

  “Right,” Shawn huffed. “It wouldn’t do any good to use the puzzles as keys

  if you were using anything besides the right answers.”

  “Anybody know how to do these Sudoku things?” Nikolaus asked as he

  waved the puzzle at them.

  They all looked at one another blankly as silence fell upon the room.

  “I do,” Thiago answered as he closed the door behind him with a tiny click

  and stepped further into the room. Brandt tensed involuntarily. He would never get used to these bastards sneaking around and being in constant stealth mode like they were.

  If they could sneak, then he should be able to blow shit up. It was only fair.

  “Where’s Remy?” Shawn asked immediately, the alarm apparent in his

  voice. Thiago smirked and nodded his head towards the sliding glass doors that led out onto the balcony. Remy stood out there with his back to them, his elbows resting on the edge of the railing as he looked out on the city. He looked like a man simply out enjoying a smoke. If it weren’t for the fact that they were three stories up and Remy had probably scaled the wall to get out there without going through the flat, Brandt would have thought nothing of the scene.

  “We didn’t know if the shit had hit the fan or what when we got back and

  you were all gone, so we took the necessary precautions,” Thiago explained as he

  looked out at Remy. Shawn stood, looking as if he wanted to go outside, but Thiago grabbed his arm and shook his head.

  “Está enojado,” Thiago warned in a low voice. “Pissy as hell. We had

  Kincaid dead to rights. Had him in a headlock and all ready to extract information.

  Then our feet got tangled somehow and all three of us went down. By the time Remy and I were up, Kincaid was gone.”

  Shawn nodded slowly and glanced back at Remy before sitting himself down

  once more.

  “He does tend to beat himself up when something goes wrong,” Shawn

  mumbled miserably. “Thinks he has to be perfect all the bloody time.”

  “Uh huh. He’ll be fine. He’s watching for any tails. Now what’s this about

  Sudoku puzzles?” Thiago asked curiously as he wedged himself between Carl and

  Nikolaus on the couch and looked at the note in Nikolaus’s hand.

  Brandt moved hesitantly to sit on the arm of Shawn’s chair, and to his

  immense relief, Shawn twined their fingers together and began to absently rub at the tip of Brandt’s thumb.

  “Here,” Nikolaus answered, pointing to the note once more. “Do that puzzle.

  It’s the key to the message.”

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  Thiago looked it over carefully and held out his hand for a pen. Carl handed

  him one wordlessly and Thiago glanced at it as he pressed the end of it. “This had blood on it,” he told Carl in distaste.

  “Only a little,” Carl responded defensively.

  Thiago glanced at Shawn and then shook his head, trying not to smile as he

  scooted to the edge of the couch and began filling in the proper answers.

  “What was the corresponding hit?” Carl asked as he leant over Thiago’s

  shoulder and rested his chin there like a puppy, watching. Thiago glanced to the side and smirked, but he didn’t shake Carl off.

  Brandt smiled affectionately. He’d missed Carl. Carl touched without

  realizing it. It was endearing, especially in a trained killer, and Brandt loved that about the man. It seemed like Shawn was always aware of his actions, and he rarely displayed the type of physical affection he was at that moment. Brandt’s eyes slid to Remy, who stood on the balcony like a stone sentinel as he made certain Thiago

  hadn’t been followed. If Brandt was feeling as guilty as he was right now, then how must Shawn be feeling? Guilt was an extremely unknown sensation for Brandt. He’d

  always been of the opinion that you had to ha
ve a conscience to feel guilty. Surprise, surprise! Brandt suddenly had a conscience!

  No wonder Shawn was in a foul mood. This feeling guilty shit was for the

  birds.

  Nikolaus flipped through the many pages of printouts until he found the hit

  they all thought had been ordered by this particular message. He handed it to Carl.

  Carl held the message in one hand and the printout in the other as Thiago

  worked at the puzzle. It took him roughly ten minutes, but he finally tapped at it as it sat on the coffee table and then slid it toward Carl.

  Brandt watched disinterestedly as the three of them worked at the message.

  They decided that the squares Kincaid had written something in were the ones that were supposed to be used as the key, and from there it seemed to be a simple cipher.

  They were done in no time.

  “So this is it,” Carl murmured in surprise as he held up the pages and looked

  at the key. “It’s so simple, in the end,” he said with a slightly disappointed scowl.

  “Sounds like,” Thiago said as he tapped his finger on his lips and hummed

  absently. “Ah, soy bueno,” he sighed in satisfaction.

  “Impressive, Thi. Really,” Nikolaus deadpanned.

  “I can’t help that Niko and I are both geniuses,” Thiago retorted with a wink

  at the German.

  “You did it then?” Shawn asked, the significance finally hitting him through

  the haze of his agitation. Nikolaus nodded proudly. Brandt’s attention was drawn

  away from Shawn as the balcony door slid open and shut once more. Remy walked in

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  with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans, looking slightly ashamed of himself.

  “You okay?” Nikolaus asked in concern.

  “I tripped,” Remy responded in disgust. “I wasn’t even in motion and I

  fucking tripped,” he added as he sulked off into the kitchen. “I’m like the fucking Three Stooges of espionage. All three of ’em. All rolled into one!” he shouted as he moved around in the kitchen and clanked around. He returned with two beers in his hands and handed one to Thiago before opening the other and looking down at