Author's note: I changed the title of this whole story because this was written as one continuous thing, but devided into four parts.
At first I thought I would publish these parts as individual stories, but I changed my mind because they do belong together.
I hope I didn't confuse too much.
Cheers.
Benji had kept an eye on the rear-view mirror, but no one had followed or tried to shoot them, at least until now.
He watched Holt climb out of the car and immediately hold onto the door. She had spent the whole drive with her forehead against the cool glass of the window, eyes half-closed.
"Let me help you," he tried. She was so focused on standing that she didn't really notice when he put an arm around her. Benji steadied her until they were inside, against her half-conscious protests that she could walk. Something was definitely wrong.
Once inside, he dropped the briefcase and placed her carefully on the armchair, since it was the nearest resting place in sight and also the only piece of furniture that had not been thrown over. Apart from turning the desk upright the other night in order to have a working space they hadn't bothered to tidy up.
She looked as if she was asleep. Benji made sure she couldn't fall, then went to get some warm water and the medical kit.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"What are you doing?" she said a little later, wide awake all of a sudden, when he gently washed the dried blood of her hands.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you. It's just, you've still had some tiny shards of glass on your skin, they're tough to catch. The wounds aren't deep or anything, but I can imagine it's not exactly pleasant." He grimaced apologetically. "Sorry."
She looked at him. Apparently she had passed out for a couple of minutes, because save for a small part of her left hand she was clean of blood and the tiny bruises hardly visible.
"I'm almost finished, just stay still."
Agent Holt didn't know what to say. She flinched slightly when Benji disinfected it.
"There you go, good as new." He smiled, slightly unsure.
"Thanks," she said after a moment. "Are you okay?" she added.
"Yes, I'm fine. I mean, it didn't go as planned, but we've got it, right?" He smiled again, quite confidently this time, and walked over to the briefcase.
"Yeah," she said quietly. "I'll be right back." She stood up, ignoring the fact that it hurt, and vanished into the other room only to re-appear hardly sixty seconds later. She'd just changed into a pair of black trousers and a shirt that was less bloody. "I need to tell you something."
Expectantly, he looked back at her.
"When we split up, I took cover in some office. I-" Only now she seemed to notice something. "Wait, you got us back here?"
"I thought-"
"Dunn, are you completely insane, they know about this house! We need to get out of here, right now."
Benji swallowed, realising that she was right, and picked up the briefcase.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
Philipp Nolan smiled. This would make things even easier. He picked up his phone to make a short call. His men were already in place. He would leave the rest to them.
He dialled another number. "Cedric," he said. "We need to meet." He would have said it was a shame about Lionel, but for some reason he found it all rather funny. But he would keep that to himself right now.
He hung up and looked at the video footage again, then he dialled a third number. It would be time for a vacation. Abroad. Europe, maybe. But first he would try one more time.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Where do we go?" Benji asked when Holt started up the car.
"I don't know. I don't even know what's happening. I always thought that Nolan was supposed to be the victim, not the other way around."
Benji was still working on that himself. But all constructive criticism his brain could come up with was What the hell just happened?
She was already exceeding the speed limit. "We need to get rid of this car."
"We can ditch it somewhere in town," Benji suggested. "Some parking lot maybe."
Holt nodded. "In town is good. We need to disappear for a while. New identities. We'll check into a hotel and I'll organise plane tickets from there."
"Where to?" Benji asked slightly unsure.
Holt shook her head. "Just away from here."
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
They had stopped at a red light.
He had always considered obeying traffic regulations an amateur mistake, but now he was sure of it. Playing by the rules always got you in trouble. He pulled up next to their car, pulled the hand-brake but left the motor running, then got out of the truck.
Without making much of a fuss, he opened the door of the car right next to him, and fired twice in quick succession. The two passengers hardly had time to look surprised.
He dragged the woman out first, then strolled around the car and got the guy as well. Both of them landed in the back-compartment of his truck, where they were joined by a small briefcase seconds later.
He left their car the way it was, motor running and doors wide open, and got back into his own vehicle.
The light turned green.
