“Wallace is a bit brash, and has a real superiority complex, he thinks he’s the best thing walking. This would be a real problem if wasn’t also so good. I doubt you could find anyone who knows more about explosives than he does. He has a problem with authority, but once you’ve earned his respect he’s as loyal as you can find.
“I hesitated before adding Mtumbe. He’s completely amoral, somewhat of a sadist, and let’s be honest, to earn that distinction in the BGP is saying something.”
“So what’s his saving grace? I’ve gotten a feel for how you work by now. There is something this guy does better than all the rest. Why do I need Mtumbe?”
Bringing Malone a drink, Hu Li responded, “He’s a tracker. Desert, jungle, tundra, you name it this guy could track a single grain of sand across the Sahara.”
“Okay, that’s four. I want you on the team, so that makes five…”
“Wait, first you’ve got me for as long as and in whatever capacity you desire, but second, I’m not BGP, I’m Shŏu. That’s Chinese for hand, but what it means is that I’m a special assistant to someone very important. I run security, I handle delicate assignments with discretion, and things polite people don’t want to know about. Okay, I can see where I can help, but as I said I’m already attached to your team. I do, however, report to the minister and not you.
“If, knowing that, you still want me on your team, then fine we can do that. I’ll take your orders until Minister Fadwah says different, but I will not take orders from any of these others. That’s bound to cause some distress, because they’ll know I’m not BGP. I may have to make an example of one of them.”
“I know you’re very good, but do you really think you can take a Hunter?”
Rolling from her spot in Malone’s lap, Hu Li walked through the doors that separated her living quarters from the dojo, calling over her shoulder, “Care to try me?”
Malone was eager to discover any new facets of his wild new lover, and as a result followed quickly.
Hu Li, once again clad in Malone’s black silk shirt, only the bottom few buttons done, took up a ready stance.
Malone was not entering a real combat situation, but was rather trying to gauge a potential team member’s ability. As a result he did not launch any deadly attacks, but rather began to methodically probe Hu Li’s defense.
Contrary to popular literature, fights among two highly skilled opponents did not usually last all that long. Malone’s fight with Matt, while intense had only lasted about a minute and a half.
More often than not contests at that skill level were decided on the very first pass. If Malone got past someone’s guard just once, the fight was over. The same was true of anyone else whose skills approached his. If both were truly skilled, and both survived, it could very well go the other way next time. There were just too many random factors. Fortunately for Malone, until his fight with Matt, he’d never run into anyone who approached his skill, even among Hunters.
Malone’s contemplative mood was shattered as his first tentative attack was not only blocked, but the counter was far more skilled than expected.
Blocking wildly and falling back Malone heard Hu Li laugh, “You Hunters, always so sure of your superiority. That is your greatest weakness. Were you only as skilled as most Hunters I’d have taken you down.
“No, I’m not as skilled as some Hunters, but I’m very, very close, and better than no small amount of them. That is the lesson I will teach your team. Do not ever underestimate your opponent. It may well cause your doom.
“Shall we continue now, with a little more mutual respect for one another’s abilities?”
Malone, bringing much more concentration to bear, said, “By all means.”
After that first pass Malone began to fight in earnest. He knew from the start that he was the better, but he quickly discovered that Hu Li could defeat a far larger percentage of BGP agents that she gave herself credit for. In fact, were she to enter the BGP, in the arena of unarmed combat she’d quickly find herself ranked among the top thirty percent.
Quickly the mock combat became a game as each tried to maneuver the other into a submission hold. Malone found himself amazed as his desire once again flared.
Gaining an arm lock, Malone painfully twisted one arm behind Hu Li’s back, and pressed her against the wall. His other hand groped her breasts, but only for a moment as Hu Li twisted free, and tripped Malone to the canvas. Pressing her breasts to his chest while grinding her pelvis against his, she bit hard on Malone’s ear, until his blood filled her mouth.
Malone slammed a knee between her legs and grabbing a handful of glossy black hair jerked her head back bearing her throat. Using his other hand to grab her throat he rolled over on top of her as Hu Li yanked his pants down past his hips.
The brutal sex that followed was the best Malone had ever experienced. More, he’d learned that she’d be even more valuable to his team than he’d thought. He’d already gained enormous respect for her administrative abilities and the way her razor sharp mind knew people, and of course he’d been enjoying her abilities in other areas since the first night together, but now he found that she was as deadly as a Hunter too. What other intriguing surprises did she have in store for him, he wondered.
19
Tokyo, Asian Territory
May 17, 2080
Abbey knew a moment’s panic when she returned to the stable and found Matt gone. Clamping down on her rising fear, Abbey considered Matt’s condition when she’d left him, and knew that if he’d moved on his own, he had not gotten far.
Dropping the things she was carrying, she studied her surroundings and, after a quick check of the stalls adjacent to the one she’d left him in, and a thorough search around the outside of the building, decided he’d most likely gone into the loft.
Desperately avoiding thinking about what had happened if someone had chanced across Matt, say a stable hand coming in late at night to check on things, Abbey began to climb the ladder to the loft.
Upon nearing the top of the ladder Abbey considered her danger. Matt would not know who was coming up the ladder, and so might strike out in defense. He might even strike if he knew it was her. They hadn’t had time to talk before Malone knocked him unconscious, so he might even consider her an enemy. Although, Abbey doubted that, as he’d clearly seen her going after Malone.
However, it paid to take precautions. Reaching high above her head, Abbey placed her hands on the loft floor and sprang up and over, flipping into the loft, and coming to a ready position.
“If you’re going to kill me, could you at least do it quietly? My head is pounding like... let’s just get it over with. OK?”
“I’m not here to kill you, you idiot. Who do you think brought you here? I’m only sorry I didn’t hit Malone harder. He’s alive and in New York, which just may give us a chance.”
Not sure why he wasn’t dead, and not sure if he cared either, Matt eased himself into a sitting position against a stack of hay bales.
“Matt, I’m a Hunter. Or I was a Hunter anyway. I was on my graduation assignment.”
“You mean I was your graduation assignment.”
“No Matt. Well, yes you were, I mean…Damn it, you have me so confused.
“I was supposed to find a criminal, sorry but that’s how you’re regarded, and ‘eliminate’ them. When I saw you watching me on the diving board, at first I thought you were like everyone else in the pool. Lusting after me like the rest of them. Then I noticed that you were looking at my eyes and not, well not the rest of me. I felt flushed and hot all over. I’ve never felt that way before. I watched you swim and when I saw how good you were, I knew there was more to you than met the eye.
“That, Matt is when you started to confuse me. I knew you were either a Hunter or prey. You moved too well to be anything but a Hunter, but you’re too close to my age. If you were a Hunter, I would have seen you during training.
“I wasn’t sure which I wanted. I‘ve never been like
the others. Oh, I don’t expect you to believe that, but I was never able to turn off that part of me that was screaming how wrong it all was. I convinced myself the problem was with me, and not with the way things are, but that’s not true.
“I had to keep all my tears inside. If they ever found out how I wanted to cry when we killed those babies, I’d have been killed too and the babies would still be dead. I learned to shut off my emotions in front of others but at night, at night Matt, I was alone with my thoughts. Or as close to alone as I ever get.”
“Matt, I’ve left the side I was born to, and I don’t know if the side I’ve chosen will have me, but if they will I’m going to do whatever I can to change things. Angus was a part of something, and it’s better than the path that was laid out before either of us. Together we could try to build something better.”
“What did we have besides killing to look forward too? Angus’ people want to change the world for the better. I hope we can join them together.
“They can make better use of our skills than we ever would have put them to. Me killing innocents just because they were different, and you wasting yourself on a futile mission of revenge.”
“I need to make them pay for what they did to the brothers at the monastery and for what they did to Angus and to so many others,” Matt said. “They’ll know what pain is when I am through with them.”
“Matt, can’t you see that would make you no better than them? No better than I would be if I hadn’t met you and found a better way? I had my attacks of conscience before, but it wasn’t until I met you that I decided I had to change.”
Listening to the woman he loved, and had every reason to hate, Matt was more confused than ever. The emotions warring inside him made it difficult to think. Love, hate, loss, despair, fear, hope, desire, all tumbling around inside him so he wasn’t sure what he felt or for who anymore. He wanted to run away screaming until he could sort it all out.
He didn’t trust what he was hearing from Abbey, but oh, how he wanted to. He’d seen the naked hate in her eyes as she crossed the dojo floor. Was it possible it had been directed at Malone and not at him? He’d always been so good at reading people. It had been a necessary skill in his world. But now, he was no longer sure. Was it his love for Abbey that made him want to believe she’d thrown away a lifetime of training, a lifetime of indoctrination, to join a hopeless rebellion against her former employers? She would go from being one of the most powerful individuals on the planet, able to arrest or kill with impunity, able to confiscate anything, enter anywhere, answerable only to her superiors in the BGP and the few government ministers placed highly enough to control the BGP, to a hunted criminal living under sentence of death. All this because of love for him?
“You’re a Hunter, Malone issued the “Order to terminate” as he put it. He issued it directly to you, and as young as you are I can’t believe you have rank on him. That leaves just two options as I see it. Either the order came to ignore his command from someone who does have rank on Malone, or you’ve gone rogue.
“Since in either case I’d assume you’d want me to believe you’ve defected from the BGP, I’m not sure how I can trust you.
“Abbey, I want so badly to trust what you say. My heart aches to believe you. My head on the other hand reminds me that as a Hunter you are every bit as good at deceiving people as I am.
“I’ve lived my life pretending to be something I’m not. Living among the citizens hiding in plain sight, all the time knowing that the only people who might be better at it were Hunters.
“I need some time to think things through. But, since right now I’m not sure I care if I live or die, and since I’ve already trusted you with all my secrets, I guess I’ll continue to trust you.”
“Okay Matt,” she said with a slight tremor in her voice, “but in case you decide that you have to go your own way, would you kiss me one time before you go?”
Leaning forward, covered in manure, Matt’s trembling lips met Abbey’s. It was even more intense than their last kiss. This time without the benefit of Angus’ potion fanning the flames of his emotions. Matt felt himself stir.
Abbey’s hands found themselves tangled in Matt’s hair while his went around her and crushed her to his chest. He felt the pain of his injuries but it was dwarfed by his desire.
The feel of her breasts against his naked chest, while her tongue danced with his, sent a shiver through his entire body.
Matt’s hand slid down her back and cupped her right buttock, squeezing lightly. A moan escaped Abbey as an answering one sounded from Matt’s mouth.
Abbey’s hand moved from the back of his head, nails trailing lightly across his chest and moved beneath the hay.
Matt sucked in a sudden breath as Abbey’s hand wrapped around him. Pulling her down into the hay with him, his other hand moved to the buttons on her shirt.
What followed was better than Matt ever believed it could be. Pain completely forgotten he looked into the eyes of the woman he loved and Matt realized he did so without reservation. He had offered her his trust under a tree on the shores of Japan, and he offered it still. He trusted her completely, unable to do differently.
For her part, Abbey was in turmoil. What she felt for Matt was powerful, but love? She just didn’t believe in love. All her dreams told her how love would betray you in the end. For the first time she was completely a part of the act, making love instead of merely having sex. Never retreating into herself as she’d done throughout her training. She found that she could not get enough of Matt. She wanted to be held in his arms forever. She enjoyed sex for the first time, and the second, and later for the third. Finally exhausted, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
“I’m in pretty bad shape right now. I’ve got a concussion and a pretty deep laceration over my left ribcage. I think I may have a few broken ribs, and as you can see,” Matt held up his crippled hand, “my hand is out of commission for the time being. I also seem to have bitten through my lower lip while I was coming down from Angus’ potion”
At the look of pain that flashed across Matt’s face at his friends name Abbey felt her heart go out to him.
“I’m so sorry, Matt. I wish we could have saved him. I did recover his PDT. I didn’t think you wanted the BGP to have that. I also got your bags from your room. Since you guys bunked together I was able to get his things too. I’m afraid I didn’t think to get his key from him before Malone came around. It was all I could do to get you out of there before the react team got there. I issued the orders they would expect, which, I’m afraid means that by now Angus’ body has been incinerated. I needed them gone, so I could hide you better, and so I could gather up your stuff.
“Thankfully Malone was unconscious and I was able to take charge while he was out. If he’d come around while I was still there, we’d both be dead by now. If the react team hadn’t been so close I might have risked killing him.
“So now you’re a criminal too. I guess you’ve vaulted to the top spot on the ten most wanted list.”
Shaking her head in a bemused manner, Abbey replied, “That’s the part I can’t figure out. My PDT should be dead, the area should be flooded with Hunters, those that would know me on sight and others as well, but there’s been nothing.
“My PDT is still fully functional, and as long as I don’t use it to transmit, they can’t use it to track me. Why would they leave me that kind of access? There is all kinds of information I can get that will help us avoid them. There have been no announcements of my traitor status, nothing about you, just…nothing.
“Angus is all over the BGP ‘net, but nothing about either of us. It gives us an advantage, and allows me to keep my access. Heck, I even know Malone’s been called to New York and promoted. They made up a new position. He is now the Deputy Director of Special Operations. He’s got total autonomy within the BGP.”
“Then that’s why there is nothing about us,” Matt said. “Look, Angus told me a lot about Malone over the years. Som
e of it I’m sure you know, some of it maybe you don’t.
“Malone was assigned to the military early on. That’s where he met Angus, although Angus never admitted to that. He wanted me to think he was a nil like me, but he was really a soldier. It was while Angus was a soldier that he knew Malone. Malone tried to stop Angus from deserting, but failed. I don’t know the details, but surely they didn’t fight.
“Anyway, the point is that Malone is driven. Driven to succeed at any cost. He won’t admit I exist, or that you took him down, because we’re both alive and free.
“Tell me, if the whole story had come out, would he have been given this big promotion?”
“No, probably not.” Abbey replied. “I don’t know, he was appointed by Minister Fadwah, and the minister does things for his own reasons. I’ll admit that it wouldn’t aid his chances, and that you’re probably right, he kept it to himself to avoid the embarrassment. He won’t let it go though. He’ll find a way to get after us both, and now he has the means like he never did before.”
Matt winced as he shifted position and almost passed out again from the pain.
“I brought a field medical kit. Let me take care of what I can,” Abbey said.
“Okay, but no drugs. I need to be as sharp as I can be for the foreseeable future.”
Abbey set to work. She removed his belt and placed the thick leather between his teeth. Matt nodded his thanks and clamped down. The finger was not too difficult, it needed to be reset and splinted. For the concussion there was nothing to be done but keep Matt calm and allow him to rest. While it was potentially the most serious injury, it was still the one requiring the least treatment. Abbey examined his lip and decided that it would heal all right without any sutures, so she cleaned it up, applied an antibiotic and left it alone. It was the ribs that caused the most difficulty. Matt had been cut clear to the bone. Then had spent the night buried in manure. Abbey had covered him to keep the filth off the wound, but had lacked the time or supplies to so much as bandage it the night before. Then Matt’s crawl across the stable floor had packed the wound with the detritus of the stable floor.
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