“I’m sure she’s fine.”
Hiamovi looked up to see Jax standing next to him. “Oh yeah, of course,” he replied as he continued to load rounds into a new pistol magazine.
“I gotta admit, I wasn’t thrilled when they told me I’d be dragging a civilian along on this mission, and I didn’t expect a whole lot from Abby. I’ve never been so happy to be so completely wrong.”
“She’s a special woman, and I just love her so much.”
“And you’re the luckiest goddamn man in the world.”
Hiamovi chuckled. “Don’t think I don’t know it, Gunny. Every day I wonder how I got so lucky for a girl like Abby to love me enough to marry me. And, you know, I’m really hoping we have a long time left together.”
“You do,” Jax assured him. “We’ll finish our business in the city and the two of you can have a lunch date.”
“Thanks, Gunny.”
“Don’t mention it. But that’s for later, got it? Right now we gotta focus on the mission, and we need your head in the game.”
“Right, right. I got it.”
Jax nodded his head then left Hiamovi, returning to his own gear to finish preparing for the assault on Chicago.
“Of course she’s fine,” Hiamovi muttered to himself. “She has to be.”
Chapter Thirty
The hours passed by at an infinitesimal crawl inside the dark Chicago police station. Abby tried sleeping in the small detention cell in which she’d been locked, but found herself far too hyped up for that. She’d been hauled in by the men who captured her during her attempted escape, and she had to assume that at least one of them was somewhere in the building guarding her, but she had not seen or heard anyone. Not even Edmund, who she expected to come strolling into view at every moment.
Abby looked at her cuffed hands and shook her head in frustration. In military circles, she was a legend, a former spy who once occupied a highly regarded post in an elite force. This very night she had infiltrated a city on high alert and successfully planted several bombs without getting caught. But what foiled her escape attempt? A freakin’ pothole. In the dark, as she glanced over her shoulder to see how many men were pursuing her, she stepped right in the damned thing. She remembered how Chicagoans hated potholes before the world went to hell, but now she hated potholes with a fury that those drivers couldn’t even begin to fathom.
Finally, not long before dawn, three men came into view and unlocked the door to Abby’s cell. “The boss wants to handle you himself,” one of them said with a grin.
“About time,” Abby replied. She hopped up from her sitting position on the floor and exited the cell. She opened her mouth to say something else, but a smelly rag pressed against her face prevented that as all three men pinned her. Abby struggled for a moment, but she knew that smell of chloroform. Her only hope and her last thought before slipping into unconsciousness was that she would eventually awaken…
***
“I don’t know about you Abby, but I’m getting a pretty strong sense of déjà vu. Have we done this before?” Edmund asked.
Abby groaned and breathed in heavily as she slowly regained consciousness. She lifted her head and blinked once or twice as she surveyed her surroundings. In the dull light of predawn that flowed in from the floor-to-ceiling windows across from Abby, it appeared to be some kind of suite in one of the several downtown hotels. A very large, amply furnished room that was probably once considered luxurious, but now felt hauntingly desolate. Abby looked down at herself, realizing that she was, once again, tied to a chair and left with Edmund, just as she had been in that prison yard so many years ago.
Abby sighed and looked at Edmund, who was sitting on the couch in front of her, leaning forward, elbows on his legs and his hands clasped together. He was wearing his typical boots and olive green cargo pants, and the dark hoodie he wore was left unzipped, revealing the center of his colorfully tattooed chest.
“Can you untie me, please?” Abby asked in an annoyed voice.
Edmund smirked and said, “Well, the feeling is gone now. You are not the scared bunny rabbit that you were last time you woke like this. No fear in your eyes, no false displays of niceties. You have become a lioness.”
“Edmund, just—“ Abby began to say, but Edmund was already getting up and moving around to her back. He pulled a long knife from his boot and sawed quickly through the cords that were binding Abby.
“You and your knives,” she said as she stretched out her arms and rubbed her sore wrists.
“I like knives,” Edmund replied in a flat tone.
“Where are we?” Abby asked.
“My home,” Edmund replied. “I temporarily moved up here after those fuckers tried to assassinate me, but I think I’ll stay. It’s quiet, and has a terrific view, aye?”
He sat back down on the couch and said, “You blew up a great deal of my food, Abby. We’ll be out in a matter of days, which significantly weakens my bargaining position with your bosses. I gotta admit, that took some major balls, especially coming here alone. I didn’t expect that from you.”
“I’m just trying to stop a battle, Edmund,” Abby said. She turned her head to look out the windows, out into the grey, pre-dawn light. “Though it appears I’m too late thanks to your pals out there.”
“Aye, they got you good, just like I got you sneaking around the prison,” Edmund said with a smile. But the smile faded, and his tone became dark when he added, “They didn’t hurt you, did they? Anyone lay a finger on you?”
“No. They locked me up and left me more or less alone.”
Edmund nodded his head. “Good. That is good.”
An awkward silence filled the suite. Abby straightened up in her chair and crossed her legs, getting comfortable. “Look, it’s not too late to order your men to stand down. We can still work this out. A lot of people are going to die this morning unless you just-“
“Unless I what?” Edmund blurted out, interrupting Abby. “Go back to that old man, hat in hand, and beg for the crumbs of me own fuckin’ meal? Surrender my lands?!”
“They’re not yours, Edmund. They never were.”
“Why not? I have just as much right to my country here as those fuckin’ pricks do. Maybe even more!”
Abby rolled her eyes and said, “We’re not doing this again. I’m not here to argue history or what makes possession of land legitimate. I get what you’re saying, Edmund. Believe me. Hell, I might even agree with you a tiny bit. All I’m here to say is that the military will take back all the land from coast to coast. You can’t stop them. This isn’t a hill worth dying on.”
“Fuckin’ watch me, I’ve got a couple surprises for them,” Edmund said, but Abby continued.
“And come on, the new president is seriously a good guy. I know you trust me, so take my word for it. I know him personally. I get you don’t like the idea of living in the same society as before, but things are going to be better,” she insisted. “And even after all you’ve said and done, you still get to keep control of Chicago! You still get a position of power in the new government, and after that the world is your oyster! Come on, see reason for once.”
“You just don’t fuckin’ get it,” Edmund muttered as he got up from the couch. “So is this really why you came out here?” he asked as he paced back and forth, staring at Abby. “You risked life and limb to hold another fruitless negotiation with me? What’s your angle?”
Abby shook her head and clasped her hands together. She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the sound of distant explosions. She got up from her chair and walked over to the windows to look outside. She realized for the first time just how high up she was, probably thirty floors above the ground. She heard more explosions, and looked to the west, already seeing plumes of smoke in the distance. A few seconds later, the soft pitter-patter of distant automatic gunfire reached her ears.
“I guess it’s startin’ already,” Edmund said as he walked up and stood next to Abby with his hands i
n his pockets.
“Guess so,” Abby replied. The two of them stood silently for a few moments before Abby spoke again. “Here’s the truth. I don’t know why I care, but I’m here to save you.”
“Me, why the fuck do you care about me?” Edmund said.
“I just said that I don’t know,” Abby shot back.
“Well, you wasted your time. Get out of here while you still can, and just leave me alone, would ya? And take your gear with you,” Edmund said. He walked over to the counter where Abby’s pistol sat and handed it to her.
“I can’t do that, Edmund,” Abby said as she holstered her handgun.
Edmund sighed and walked away from Abby. “You’re really startin’ to fuckin’ piss me off now, lass,” he said.
“I don’t care, I risked a lot coming here to talk some sense into you. It’s too late to stop the battle but if you come with me now, maybe I can still get you a good deal.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Well I’m not leaving without you,” Abby said, turning to Edmund and putting her hands on her hips.
“That is exactly what you are going to do!” Edmund shouted.
“You’re going to die if you don’t come with me!” Abby shouted back.
“I don’t fuckin’ care!”
“Well I do!”
“Why?”
“I don’t know!”
There was silence again, save for the distant sounds of battle, and both Abby and Edmund were staring at each other with hardened eyes. “If you want me to leave with you,” Edmund said, pointing at Abby, “you’re gonna have to fuckin’ kill me yourself and drag my body out of here.”
Abby said nothing. She quietly fumed as she continued to stare down Edmund. After a few moments, she pulled her hoodie off over her head, tossed it to the side, and adjusted her dark blue tanktop. She pulled a band out of her pocket and began putting her hair up into a short ponytail.
Edmund chuckled and said, “So you really are gonna kill me, eh?”
Abby pulled on her black combat gloves next and said, “No. I told you that I vowed to never kill again.”
Edmund faked having to choke back vomit. “Yeah, real fuckin’ cute,” he said, but Abby ignored him.
“What I am going to do is beat the hell out of you, and take you downstairs with me so that we can tell the military you’ve accepted the president’s pardon,” Abby said.
“You really think his deal is still on the table now that the first shots have been fired?” Edmund asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” Abby replied. “I’ll make him draw up a new one.”
Edmund looked Abby up and down with an approving smile. Several hard years had drastically changed the young girl he once met. The heavy combat boots, brown cargo pants, and those gloves with Kevlar knuckles gave Abby a menacing look. One arm was covered in a sleeve tattoo, the top of which looked to Edmund to be a cover-up of an older, unwanted piece. Her arms and shoulders were sinewy and showed considerable muscle tone for a girl in her early 20’s.
Her face was what had changed most, Edmund noticed. The soft, babyish face of a young teenager was long gone, replaced by the hardened face of a grown woman, a face that not only bore physical scars but also hid invisible ones deep inside. And by God, that look in her steel grey eyes unnerved him just a bit, and for a moment he reconsidered Abby’s proposal.
He recognized that look. He had seen it once before in the dark eyes of a man who gave him the worst beating of his life seven years ago.
Edmund smiled as he shook off his coat and faced Abby bare-chested. “If nothing else in this world is true, Abby,” he said quietly as he tossed his coat aside, “I know one thing for fuckin’ sure. You are Zach Davidson’s daughter.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Edmund put his hands up in a fighter’s stance, and Abby did the same. Neither one moved for what felt like several minutes, as they both thought out their first moves. Another explosion resonated through the empty room, this one sounding louder. The battle was moving closer.
Abby suddenly charged at Edmund, who then rushed forward to meet her. He cocked a fist back to punch Abby, but she was faster. Planting her lead foot, she spun around and threw a heel kick at Edmund, hitting him in his exposed side and forcing his arms down. Abby quickly followed up, throwing a hammerfist across his face and a left hook. Edmund started to give ground, taken aback not only by Abby’s aggression but also her strength, and those gloves made her punches land much harder than normal.
Abby stayed on the offensive, hitting Edmund with a forward push kick. He stepped to Abby’s left and threw a jab at her. Abby ducked to her right, leapt in the air, and hit him with a Superman punch. Edmund staggered back but regained his composure quickly and stepped right back up, throwing another jab. Abby deflected this punch with her left forearm then hit Edmund with an uppercut, followed by her left elbow across his face.
Edmund staggered back again, trying to get a quick respite from Abby’s onslaught. “Alright bitch,” he muttered in between heavy breaths, wiping blood from his mouth. He feigned another jab to Abby’s head then went low with a right hook, connecting with Abby’s side.
Feeling bolstered by finally landing a hit, Edmund carried on his offensive. He threw a left uppercut, narrowly missing Abby’s chin, then hit the inside of her thigh with his knee, trying to shock her femoral artery and force her down, but Abby stayed on her feet, though she was now giving ground.
Sounds of the battle raging outside intensified as did the battle between Abby and Edmund. The staccato gunfire and window-flexing explosions were louder and more frequent, and the whine of helicopters zipping through city blocks, followed by the buzzsaw-like sound of their miniguns, now filled the once silent hotel.
Edmund was finally getting some good licks in on Abby, but she still proved to be the superior fighter in terms of skill. While Edmund was older, stronger, and had more experience in street fights, Abby had a lifetime’s worth of training crammed into just a few years. Zach trained her every day until he died, then Hiamovi and Bob built up on that foundation, and her hand-to-hand training with the DAS was the deadly capstone on top of it all.
Edmund charged at Abby, grabbed her around her waist, and tried to take her down. But Abby based out, spreading her legs and dropping her weight to stay on her feet. She drove two hard elbow strikes down on the back of Edmund’s neck. As he tried to pull away, Abby wrapped her left arm around his neck, grabbed her wrist with her other arm, and pulled upwards, choking Edmund.
Edmund tried pulling his head out of Abby’s arms but she held firm. He threw several hard punches into Abby’s exposed right side. Abby took a quick step back and bashed the top of Edmund’s head into the wall, trying to get him to stop, but the blows to Abby’s ribs kept coming. Unable to take the pain for any longer, she released Edmund and shoved him backwards.
Expecting a momentary reprieve, Abby dropped her guard and Edmund immediately seized his chance. He threw a hard and fast jab at Abby, hitting her flush on the cheek. She stumbled back and Edmund hit her on the other cheek with a hook, knocking her against the wall. Edmund stepped up, pushed Abby’s head against the wall, and hit her several more times in her now aching right side.
“The hell off me!” Abby cried, and she stomped on Edmund’s foot with her heel. He leapt back reflexively from the pain and Abby quickly moved to the side. Edmund charged her again, hoping to keep the offensive, but Abby had other ideas. She turned with her left side facing Edmund and delivered a vicious sidekick that caught Edmund right on the chin. His head snapped back and he nearly fell over on legs that felt like jelly.
Abby was going to kick him again and end the fight. But as she stepped forward, the wall of windows facing the street battle outside suddenly exploded, showering both her and Edmund with shards of broken glass.
Hundreds of bullets snapped and hissed into the hotel suite as Abby and Edmund threw themselves onto the floor, covering their heads and necks with their hands.
Abby dared to turn her head towards the shattered windows to see what had happened. An Army Apache gunship flew past their building, and on the other side of the street a similar helicopter was in hot pursuit, still firing its minigun at the Apache.
“What on Earth…” Abby started to say as she stood up.
“Told you I’d have some surprises,” Edmund muttered as he slowly got to his feet, still shaking his head. “Those dickheads left some pretty sweet equipment here when they abandoned the city.”
Both Abby and Edmund had taken several cuts on their arms, legs, and backs from the broken glass, but with all of the adrenaline flowing in their bodies, such pain barely even registered with them. Abby had hoped the fight would be over now, but Edmund came right at her after taking a moment to gather himself.
He punched her hard across the face again, and Abby stumbled back. She threw a punch, but this was blocked and she took another punch and a knee to her midsection. Edmund then grabbed Abby by her hair and threw her to the floor, hoping to mount her, but Abby had the presence of mind to roll away when she hit the ground and get some distance.
Abby was breathing heavily, on the defensive now for the first time in this fight. Edmund was gaining confidence. He approached Abby again, leading with a punch and then throwing a front kick. Abby managed to dodge both, but Edmund kept coming with more strikes, forcing Abby to keep moving. Finally, she managed to get inside one of his punches and drilled Edmund in the throat. Regaining momentum, she landed several more hits on Edmund and seemed to be in control of the f—
Boom!
A loud crash shook the room and tossed Abby and Edmund to the floor.
One of the Army helicopters outside, in trying to evade incoming gunfire, had tried to take a hard turn too fast and crashed into the hotel building in which Abby and Edmund were fighting, just a few floors below. The helicopter itself survived, but the impact caused a malfunction in the weapons system, and the helicopter fired its entire payload of Hellfire missiles and Hydra 70 rocket pods directly into the hotel. The massive explosion shook the entire building.
His Name Was Zach | Book 3 | Their Names Were Many Page 26