City of the Star

OK, wow. It's been so long since I've worked on this but I have had the
end in mind for so long! It did wind up shorter than I had wanted, but
I am happy with it. And I'm glad I made some people happy with it as
well. I still want to do a sequel, but I also have a completely
different fic in mind for another fandom as well. So it might be a
while for the sequel to pop up!

Chapter 7

"Do you think that thing got out?" Parker asked Raymond as they hurried
in the direction of the shot.

"I hope not."

They slowed at the sound of a male's voice. Remaining as quiet as they
could, the two slipped down a shadowy hall until they heard Jacqueline's
voice.

" - completely insane!" she was saying. She was crouched on the
ground, one hand supporting herself and the other holding something
Raymond and Parker could not see.

"You have to be to be in this business," the male voice said. "Now give
it to me!"

Raymond let out a sound of annoyance. It was Marco, their contact.

"You see?" Parker whispered. Raymond shot him a look then turned to
Jackie. Either she had not seen them, or she was not going to draw
attention to them. Marco, he was sure, had not seen them at all.

Parker jerked his head towards the two. "Go," he mouthed. "I've got
this."

Raymond scowled. 'Putting my life in Parker's hands...' he thought.
'Why does this always seem to happen when he's around?'

Aloud, he said, "Do you really think that, Marco? I've never considered
myself to be insane."

Marco's gun moved from Jacqueline to Raymond. "Drop your weapon," he
demanded.

"What, this one?" Raymond asked, drawing his handgun.

Marco narrowed his eyes at Raymond. "Don't get smart with me. Drop it
or I shoot her."

"Then I'll shoot you."

Jacqueline looked from Raymond to Marco. 'When did I become
expendable?' she thought. She saw movement out of the corner of her
eye. She looked at the floor so Marco could not see her smirk. 'So the
BSAA does come in handy.'

Raymond looked from Jacqueline to Marco. Slowly, he lowered his gun,
letting his hand go limp. The handgun hit the ground with a metallic
clack. Raymond raised his hands to show they were empty. Marco smirked
himself, until Raymond suddenly tackled Jackie, knocking her to the
ground. At that time, Parker appeared from behind them and fired a
shot. It took Marco right between the eyes in a quick, clean kill.

Jacqueline wriggled out from under Raymond and crawled over to Marco.
She began looting through his pockets, then gasped as she pulled out a
vial.

"I thought you had the sample," Raymond said as he rose to his feet. He
dusted himself off and regarded Jacqueline with a frown.

She shook her head as she, too, got to her feet. "No, I found a
computer. Marco beat me to the sample. But that doesn't matter now."

"Guess not," Raymond said as Jacqueline pocketed the vial. He turned to
Parker, who still had his gun drawn. "I was going to thank you, but it
seems like you're considering doing the same to us."

Parker looked at Marco, then turned to them. With a sigh, he said, "I'm
going to regret this. Go."

"What?" Jacqueline demanded.

"Go. I'm giving you a small window to leave. If you get caught by
anyone else, I can't save you."

Raymond nodded to Parker, then grabbed Jackie's arm. The two of them
hurried out of the facility and into the night, not speaking until they
were back to their rooms.

"Why let us go?"

"Why does Parker do anything?" Raymond asked with a shrug. He waited
impatiently for her by the door of her room as she grabbed her laptop.
"Come on, we'd better get out of here before the place is crawling with
BSAA."

"Right, right."

As she made sure she had everything, Raymond pulled out his phone and
stepped out of the room. Making sure he was not watching her, she
slipped several now full flash drives into a hidden compartment of her
own personal bag. With a small grin, she zipped it up and gave it a
friendly pat.

She joined Raymond just as he ended his phone conversation. "I've
managed to get us transport out of this dump. We just have to avoid the
BSAA for a while."

"Fine with me. I've had enough of them as it is."

They left the hotel without speaking. They barely talked as they
slipped down side streets and darkened alleys. "How are you holding
up?" Raymond asked as they left the city limits. The sound of a
helicopter could be heard in the distance.

"Fine," Jackie said. She was panting slightly, but other than that she
seemed wide awake and ready to go.

"Good. Almost there."

"Good to know," she said, panting. "Just as long as the BSAA don't
catch us."

"They won't," Raymond promised. His word turned out to be true. On a
small abandoned strip, a private plane awaited them. They were hurried
on board an agent whose only concern seemed to be if they retrieved a
sample. Once he was handed the sample, he pulled out a cellphone and
went to the back of the small plane to make a few calls.

Exhaustion seemed to hit Jackie first. She fell asleep as the plane
soared over the ocean to its destination. Her head drooped, and she
slept most of the flight with her head on Raymond's shoulder. Not that
he noticed, he was asleep nearly as soon as she was.

They were awoken by their fellow agent a few minutes shy of landing.
Jacqueline yawned, stretched, and grabbed her bag. She knew that her
own flash drives had not been found. If they had been, she would not
have woken up. After all, she had an auction to attend, and the flash
drives were going to fetch a high price...

Raymond did not speak to her until they were on the ground. He stood
next to his car, brought to the airport by an underling at his request.
"I guess we won't see each other again. Maybe not for a while, at
least."

"No," she said sweetly. "Too bad, huh? I was starting to like you."

Raymond rolled his eyes as he slid into the driver's seat. "Can I give
you a ride?"

"I'm going to wait for a flight," Jackie said, shaking her head. He
gave her a quick wave and started the car. After taking a few steps
towards the small terminal, she stopped and looked back as Raymond
adjusted the mirror. "Raymond!" she shouted, tossing something into the
car. It landed on the seat next to him.

It was a note wrapped around a key. It read:

If you're ever in the Maldives, look me up. I have an apartment there.
~J

P.S. No extradition treaty with the US!

With a laugh, Raymond crumpled the note, pocketed the apartment key, and drove off.