by Loki Renard
“Why in the damn hell do they make us take those civilian flights,” he growled, knowing the answer to the question already. You could get on a commercial flight without anybody taking any real notice. Millions of people took commercial flights every day and 99.9999% of them were not special agents of any kind. If you wanted to get from A to B without arousing interest and satellite tracking, you got in line, you took your shoes off, you went through the ridiculous body scanner and you flew the friendly skies just like everybody else. The problem was that when you were trying to get out of the airport you got stuck in traffic - just like everybody else. Usually it didn’t matter, but on that day, with every minute taking them one moment closer to what he considered to be Zora’s inevitable capture and demise, it was maddening.
“How the hell did she do it?” He slammed his hand against the steering wheel and glared out the window.
Brian did not reply. He was sitting very quietly on his side of the car, watching the traffic with a nervous expression on his normally impassive face as Savage swung the vehicle aggressively between lanes.
“I’m going to kill her,” Savage growled. “After I save her, I’m going to kill her.”
A gap opened up in the traffic ahead and he went for it, gunning the engine and briefly accelerating hard enough to push both occupants of the car back into their seats before coming to yet another stop. Horns blared around them, but he didn’t care about horns. He didn’t care what other people thought, they were lucky he was putting up with them at all. He glanced out his window at the raised grass verge, wondering if there was enough room to drive up on it and save some time.
Fortunately the lights turned green before he could test the theory and the traffic started to flow a bit more smoothly. Brian uttered an audible sigh of relief as they got up to a reasonable speed and Savage seemed to calm down a bit. His relief was short lived however, for not a mile down the road Savage suddenly swore loudly and jammed on the breaks, sending the car to a skidding halt in the middle of traffic.
Brian looked on in horror as his commanding officer wrenched the driver’s side door open and leaped out into the road. He then proceeded to bound across four lanes of traffic without paying any attention to the drivers who were forced to slam their brakes on to avoid the large muscular man running out in front of them with all the focused intensity of a greyhound chasing a stuffed bunny on a stick.
Dashing between the deadly hulks of high speed metal that raced by all around him Savage ignored the cacophony of horns and harsh expletives. He barely heard them at all, his mind was focused on something much more important. Just for a moment he’d caught improbable sight of someone very familiar. He was sure it was Zora, just walking along the footpath as if she didn’t have a care in the world, as if she were not a fugitive from those who operated beyond the law.
A car hurtled towards him, screeching brakes and burning rubber. It didn’t stop quite in time and Savage was forced to make a mighty leap onto the hood in order to avoid being hit by the thing. He missed the drop-jawed look of amazement on the driver’s face as he bounded over the car, leaving a large footprint in the alloy.
It was Zora. It had to be her. He’d recognize her anywhere. She’d changed over the months, she was no longer the straggly haired slightly chubby woman he’d first met. She was trimmer now, more toned and her hair had grown out into its natural dirty blonde state. She was walking in the opposite direction, no longer facing him, but he was sure it was her. She still had the slight hunch to her shoulders when she walked, not to mention a scuffing gait that made her look as though she were kicking stones out of the way with every step.
He got confirmation when she turned around to see what all the fuss was about on the road. A few small collisions had ensued in his wake and there were plenty of people screaming abuse at one another. Their eyes locked across the chaos and he saw horrified recognition dawn on her. Her eyes went wide like she’d seen a ghost and she turned and ran, clasping shopping bags in both hands.
Again he was reminded of how far she’d come. In the past he’d have chased her down in a few steps, but she managed to lead him on a bit of a merry chase as she dodged between buildings, using her smaller stature and superior maneuverability to slow him down on the turns. They ran through crowds of shoppers, most of whom seemed dead set on ignoring them completely. That was the paradox of a busy city, you were surrounded by people constantly, but you were also more alone than ever. You could be chased down by an apparent mad man and still people would walk on by, chatting about hats and sipping low fat ice chai soy lattes.
There were limits though, even in LA there were limits. Savage silently willed her to stop running before they caught the attention of a police officer. Almost immediately, as if she’d picked up the thought, she dodged down an alley where a chain link fence set up for the purposes of keeping thieves and beggars out caught her too. She tried to climb it, but her shopping slowed her down and he was on her in an instant. He grabbed her by the back of her shirt and yanked her down off the fence, catching her as she fell.
Zora parted her lips as if she were about to scream, but he clapped his hand over her mouth. “Shut up,” he growled harshly. “Shut the hell up if you want to live.”
Her eyes reflected fear and confusion, but she nodded. He took that as a sign that she wouldn’t yell or try to run again and he took his hand away from her mouth. “Are you staying somewhere close by?”
She nodded silently and he shifted his grip from the back of her shirt to clasp her hand in his own.
“Take me there.”
***
Savage did not expect to be taken to the place he was taken. He’d expected another alley or perhaps an abandoned building, something rough and dark and out of the way. The penthouse suite he found himself standing in was none of those things. It looked out over the city and was furnished with two oversized antique mirrors that made the place seem twice as cavernously big as it really was. An unbelievably large bed was also in residence, big enough to sleep four or five comfortably at the very least.
Looking around at the opulence and splendor, he frowned to himself. There was something not right about this. No, there was something horribly wrong about it. He turned to Zora who was smirking broadly at him. “How did you afford this?” He doubted he was going to get an answer, much less a straight answer, but the question had to be asked.
As he’d expected, she simply shrugged. “That’s my concern.”
“It’s not just your concern, little girl,” he growled. “You have no idea how much trouble you’re in.”
“I have some idea,” Zora replied, her eyes growing cold. “But it is irrelevant. I’m not going back to that place. Not ever. If you’re here to drag me back, we have a serious problem.”
Savage shook his head with a humorless chuckle. “I’m not here to take you back. They’ll kill you if they get their hands on you.”
“Oh.” She looked at him with a curiously detached expression. “Well I suppose that’s good to know. Thanks for passing the message along.”
She was angry and he understood her anger. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be okay, but that wasn’t a promise he could make. “Zora,” he shook his head. “I’m sorry I got you into all of this.”
A brief flicker of surprise passed through her gaze, quickly replaced with her native cynical skepticism. “Are you?” She took a step back from him and crossed her arms over her chest. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re still running around doing their dirty work.”
It was going to be almost impossible to get her to trust him, let alone listen to him. She’d managed to do what he could not – get herself out of the compound. And she’d managed to find funding fairly quickly after the fact. For a brief moment Savage wondered if she was a spy after all. He quickly dismissed the thought as being ridiculous. There was no way she could be a spy. She was nothing but what he’d made her
be.
“I’m going to let you go, Zora,” he said, hoping she believed him. “I’m going to try to help you too, but you have to be careful. You have to lay low. You can’t do silly things.”
She raised a brow as if she were about to take offense at the notion anything she did was ill-advised. “Silly things?”
“Yeah,” he looked around at the splendor that surrounded him. “Like, I don’t know, rob a bank or something.
She snickered and his heart sank. “Zora. Tell me you didn’t actually rob a bank. If the police arrest you, they’ll hand you straight back over to Hurtzwald and you know how that ends.”
“Who is Hurtzwald? And why would the military kill me? I haven’t done anything to hurt them.”
They were both good questions. Savage dodged the first one and answered the second. “You’re a pain in the ass, they don’t like people being a pain in the ass. You’re also an incredible security risk.” He fixed her with a searching look. “How did you manage to escape?”
“Not telling,” Zora smiled sweetly. “I might need to do it again someday.”
“No.” Savage shook his head. “If they catch you again and by some chance don’t kill you, you can expect to be under constant supervision. Probably chained to someone day in and day out.”
“That would be awkward in the bathroom,” Zora noted flippantly. She wasn’t taking him all that seriously, much to his chagrin. “So will they kill me, or won’t they kill me?”
“I don’t know.” Savage sighed, feeling very much as if he was wasting his breath. “It was on the cards when they thought you were useless…”
“Charming,” Zora interjected.
“… but you’ve proved you’re not useless now, so I don’t know.”
“These people are the worst employers ever,” Zora noted dryly. He watched as she took herself over to the extensive bar and poured herself a double bourbon. “They might promote you, might kill you, might stuff you into an underground cell and never let you see the light of day again. It’s like Russian Roulette, but all the chambers are loaded.”
He smiled, the analogy was a good one. “It is,” he said walking over to her and taking the drink out of her hand. “So you’re going to have to be careful and not turn back into a lush.”
A flash of anger passed over her pretty features. She did not like having her drink taken away from her, no siree. “Brett darling,” she said with impressive self control. “I don’t answer to you anymore. Give me back my drink.”
“Zora sweetie,” he mimicked her tone as he placed the glass on a high shelf away from her. “You’ve been gone for less than twelve hours and I’ve already found you.” He leaned in close and lowered his voice to a menacing purr. “Do you really think there’s anywhere you can go that I can’t find you? Do you really think I can’t make you answer to me if I want to?”
She looked far less sure of herself after his little speech. “How did you find me?” She had to have known the question wasn’t going to get an answer, much like he’d known she wasn’t going to tell him how she’d escaped.
“I have my methods,” he said, keeping the illusion of near omnipotent power as intact as possible.
She was about to argue, but she was interrupted by his phone ringing. Savage checked the device and saw that it was Brian calling. He held his finger to his lips at Zora, then answered it.
Once again, Brian didn’t bother with pleasantries. “Uh Sir, are you in the Mattrion hotel?”
Puzzled at how Brian could have possibly deducted such a thing, Savage confirmed that he was. “How did you know?”
“Just a hunch sir,” Brian said quite calmly. “There are two police choppers being scrambled to that location, not to mention at least ten ground units.”
Savage hung up and grabbed Zora. “We have to go.”
She predictably started fighting him, futilely attempting to pull her arm out of his grip. “What? No! I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Zora!” He yelled urgently. “They’re coming. They’re coming now. You understand me?”
“No!” She shouted back. “I don’t believe you!”
He took a breath to calm himself and modulated his voice. This was not the time for a screaming match. “We don’t have time to fight about this. Come with me. Now.”
“No!”
They could have argued like that until they were caught, if not for the sound of a distant chopper drawing steadily closer lending some credibility to his argument. Savage pointed out the window. “They’re coming for you. If you want to stay here and wait for them, fine. I’m leaving.” He let Zora go and made his way quickly towards the door. He was out of the suite and on his way to the emergency stairwell before Zora came racing after him. She’d grabbed a backpack and looked ready to move.
“I don’t trust you,” she said, “but I trust them even less.”
There was no more time for discussion. Savage lead them both into the stairwell. The warning had come just in time, but not quite soon enough to make a completely clean getaway. They managed to descend several floors before the clanging of metal stairwell doors and the sound of heavy boots on the stairs below announced the arrival of the cops.
Wordlessly, Savage pushed the door to the nearest floor open. Zora followed him without complaint. Fortunately for both of them they were dressed casually, Savage from his civilian flight, Zora from her recent shopping spree. In spite of her new-found wealth, she’d still elected to buy jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, though they’d probably cost five times as much as anything in a department store.
He reached for her hand and she laced her fingers with his, playing the role of adoring partner perfectly as they strolled down the rabbit warren like corridors of the hotel. They couldn’t even hear the police officers anymore, the place was well equipped with soundproofing that allowed guests in one room to have a reasonably loud gathering without disturbing those staying next door.
They stopped to wait for a passing waiter pushing a dinner cart covered with a glistening white cloth and Zora took the opportunity to stand on tip toes and place a kiss on Savage’s cheek. It was not a gesture of affection, it was just a way of getting close enough to whisper a dire promise. “You better not fuck me on this Brett,” she breathed.
He chuckled. “Last time I checked you liked it when I fucked you.”
She gave him a dirty look, but was not given the chance to respond. Behind them they could hear doors slamming open as the police began searching floor by floor.
“What the hell did you do?” Savage muttered to Zora, dragging her through the halls more quickly.
“What do you mean what did I do?” She injected just the right amount of righteous indignation into the question.
“This isn’t us,” he growled. “You’ve managed to piss someone else off.”
“What can I say,” Zora said, tripping along after Savage as he tugged her in his wake. “It’s a talent of mine.”
The officers were drawing closer, they could both hear them as they shouted back and forth. The situation was getting desperate, and witty banter aside, they were going to need a miracle to get out of this without being caught. Glancing at the waiter ahead of them, Savage hatched a plan.
***
Zora repressed a giggle as she crouched on her hands and knees, working hard to keep her balance as she was trundled along in the base of the dinner cart. Savage sure looked funny in the waiter’s outfit. It was a little too small for him, the jacket not quite broad enough across the shoulders. There weren’t many men on the planet built along Savage’s lines.
The real waiter was stuffed inside a closet in one of the suites, tied up with bedsheets. They’d find him soon enough. He’d been compensated for his troubles with five hundred dollars in clean bank notes, which might mollify him somewhat. Maybe he’d even keep his mouth shut. Probably not.
Savage had been correct. The police weren’t looking for him and they weren’t working on behalf of Hurtzwald, who ever
the heck that was. They were after a bank robber. She knew that because they’d told Savage as much when they’d questioned him after mistaking him for a waiter. Had he seen a blonde woman? Did he know where she might be?
She still wasn’t certain that he wasn’t going to try to take her back to the compound, but for the moment she had to trust him. He’d cleared most of the officers and steered the cart into the elevator, then subsequently into the parking lot. Peeking out from under the white cloth, she could see dirty concrete and car wheels.
“Right,” Savage said, pulling the cart to a halt and helping her out from under it. “Get in the car.”
It was no surprise to Zora that Brian had the car ready to help them escape. Brian was like a silent Jeeves, always there when you needed him. She eyed the vehicle suspiciously. “If you try to take me back there…”
“I’m not going to take you back there,” Savage sighed, finally running out of patience. Before she could argue any more he grabbed her by the back of her sweater and tossed her bodily into the back of the car. “Now shut up and hide down low whilst we get out of here.”
The police were checking cars as they left, but Savage ditched the waiter’s jacket and Brian flashed his military ID and they were waved through whilst Zora took refuge under a blanket. She continued to hide until they were out of the city and whizzing along the gorgeous curves and lines of the PCH. Then, throwing back the blanket, she emerged to see the sparkling waters of the Pacific Ocean smashing merrily against rocky cliffs.
“We did it!” She announced gleefully. Her enthusiasm was not shared by the other occupants of the vehicle.
“I’m going to drop you off in one of the smaller towns off the highway. Keep your head down and for god’s sake, keep your nose clean,” Savage growled at her. “If you commit a single crime I’m going to come after you and beat your ass until you can’t sit for a month.”
“Oh yeah? Well…” Zora was going to come up with a counter threat, but the glare Savage gave her from the front seat was enough to make her shut her mouth.