Sam and Nate's little adventure

Chapter 8

That afternoon

Sam Axe did not mind doing surveillance. That is to say, he didn't mind the kind of surveillance where you sit in the car and observed.

But Michael wanted Sam to do a different kind of surveillance. The kind where you had to shadow someone on foot. That included sneaking around, hiding, peeking and sometimes picture-taking. You have to stay alert and move at a moment's notice because your target is also moving. In other words, you are in motion. To top it off, that kind of surveillance left you with no time for snacks and drinks. Sam hated that kind of surveillance.

And then there was the subject of the surveillance. For some reason, Michael wanted Sam to follow Nate around. What little secret could Nate ever hold? Sam wondered.

So far, Sam had followed Nate to the grocery store, the post office and the pharmacy. If Michael wanted to know where Nate went during the day, why didn't he just ask, "Hey, Nate, where are you headed?" Sheesh, what a waste of time!

Sam checked his watch. Two o'clock. Snacktime, and he was nowhere near to getting something to eat.

No time to plan his menu now, as Nate was on the move again.

Nate had entered a bank. Damn. He was hoping Nate would drop by an eating establishment. Then Sam could casually bump into him and perhaps even join him. That would make it the closest tracking job in surveillance history.

Sam watched from the bushes, hoping his stomach would not grumble. Worst of all, his throat felt parched. Please let this be the last stop. In Sam's way of thinking, if Nate ran one more errand, he could probably get a job as a UPS delivery guy.

Just then the bank door opened and Nate walked out of the bank. He was holding a bulky manila envelope. Hmmm...What could be in that yellow envelope? Sam was put on alert.

As Nate continued down the sidewalk, Sam covertly observed a black vehicle slowly make its way down the street. From Sam's standpoint, it appeared to be tailing Nate. Sam had been in the bushes so long, he had named one of the bushes "Tommy."

The distance between he and Nate was widening, so Sam had to be on the move again. Great.

Now safely concealed behind a building, Sam pulled out his binoculars. The ominous car, which had been driving beside Nate, suddenly drove past him. Hmmm...maybe Sam had judged it wrong and the vehicle wasn't following Nate after all.

Still, Sam kept a watch on the vehicle with his binoculars, just in case. He observed that instead of driving through or turning the corner, the dark car had parked at the end of the corner.

Two suspicious-looking men got out of the vehicle. Uh-oh. Zooming in, Sam could see one had a ponytail, which made him look like a hip, high school art teacher that liked to hit the bong every now and then. The other was built solid, with what looked to be a 'knife' tattoo of some sort on his neck.

They were headed towards Nate, carrying items that could do some serious damage to a person's body. Nate continued on, oblivious to the imminent danger.

And Nate was headed straight for the two goon-heads.

"Oh crap! "Sam thought to himself, as he pulled the binoculars down from his face. Those two guys spelled trouble with a capital "T". Sam came out from behind the building and strode quickly towards Nate.

With his quickened pace, he reached Nate in no time.

"Sam! Hey, Sam!" Nate hadn't expected to see Sam here as he greeted Sam cheerfully, "What a pleasant-" He looked aghast when Sam grabbed him and turned him the other way, back towards the row of apartments, back towards the bank. Sam was prodding Nate at a fast pace.

"H-hey, what's going on, Sam?" Nate asked, totally unaware.

"Two thugs are following you, and I think they want to do more than that," Sam quickly explained, as he looked back.

The two goons were walking even faster and closing the distance.

"Those two guys do look mean," Nate said as he also looked back, "So, Sam, do you, like, have a plan on how to lose them? Are you going to shoot your way out, or better yet, blow them up?" At this point, Nate wasn't too worried, in that Michael always had a plan to escape. He figured Sam would be the same way.

"Nate," asked Sam sounding exasperated,as he moved quickly, "Does it look like I am carrying a bazooka or a bomb on me?"

"Well...hey, how am I suppose to know how this outsmart-the-bad-guy thing works?"

"Well, before you attack, Nate; you gotta size up the situation," Sam was talking fast, "Point one: They're built solid. So that means they're strong. My physique is 'jello- solid' at best and your physique is 'scrawny-solid' at worst. Advantage, them. "

Hey, I work out!" said Nate, as he puffed out his chest while still walking fast.

"That's the point you take away from my spiel?"

"Sorry, Sam, Go on."

"And then..." Sam continued, "Point two: They're willing to attack us on the street. Meaning they're reckless. Advantage them, again. Point three: Only one of us knows how to fight. The other one would lose even if he had a bazooka. Triple advantage them again. So it's game, set, match them! I think, therefore, we better skip plans A and B and go straight to Plan R."

They picked up their speed to a faster stride.

"Oh... okay, sure, Sam. What is plan R?"

Sam didn't mince words.

"Run!"

Sam took off before a stunned Nate could react. Nate could do nothing but start running after Sam. The two bad guys immediately picked up their pace, too .

Not surprisingly, Nate was faster than Sam and was able to catch up with him and even past him. To Sam, it was as if he was standing still as Nate gained more speed and Sam ended up watching the back of him.

Damn! When was Nate a former Olympic speed runner? Sam started breathing harder. He knew he could never catch up with Nate. The kid is fast.

As they ran down a block of apartments, Nate was clearly ahead as he constantly had to look over his shoulder. Sam was running hard, huffing and puffing away.

"Faster, Sam!" Nate yelled, as he looked back.

Really? Nate had to tell him that? Sam thought, why not remind him to breathe also?

Sam felt his lungs were exploding as he tried to suck in more air. His legs felt as if someone had put lead in his shoes.

Sam knew he was running out of gas. As Nate turned around, he came to that same conclusion. He slowed down so Sam could catch up.

Nate looked to be going in slow-motion as he moved side-by-side with Sam. Catching his breath, Sam felt as if he was a hamster running on one of those exercise wheels- his legs were moving forward, but he was getting nowhere fast.

Air, I need air. Okay, okay, Sam vowed to himself. After today, he will cut down on his drinking. Yeah, for real, definitely. From now on, there will be no more orange juice in the morning.

"Sam!" Nate said, looking as if he wasn't even breaking a sweat as he ran, "Which way should we go?"

Sam sounded like he had asthma, as his lungs could not take in enough air.

"You...being a limo driver in this...(heave) area," Sam breathed heavily, "you should know…your way around…here (huff), right?"

"I know a secret way!" Nate announced confidently, as he instantly pictured himself the hero of this predicament.

Of all days not to be carrying a weapon, regretted Sam. He always thought carrying a gun was cumbersome.

Fi, on the other hand, carried two guns and sometimes a knife when she was on a case. Third-world countries should be as well armed as her.

An idea came to Sam at the thought of Fi. As they continued running, Sam got out his cell phone. He speed dialed Fi's number.

"Hello?" Fi picked up immediately.

"Fi!"(puff, puff). Sam was running and yelling into the phone at the same time, "Fi!"

Fi made a sound like a disappointed sigh.

"Sam... Sam, I know it's you! Stop that heavy breathing!" Fi insisted, "I'm not in the mood for a crank call, you hear me? You're obscene enough."

"Fi! This is serious! Listen, didn't…you have to wrangle a guy…(huff)with a knife tattoo…on his neck?"

"A neck tattoo? You mean Sid Bailey?" she asked. She had heard he had escaped custody. It didn't surprise her that he had taken a new "job".

"Yeah..(gasp)...him..." said Sam, breathing hard.

"Sam, last I heard, he's in the wind. He made a run for it."

"Sister, you don't know (puff) the half of it!"

Sam was interrupted by Nate's yelling.

"Sam! Over here! over here!" Nate was gesturing with his hand to run in a different direction.

"Sam! What's going on? Don't mess with Bailey! He's bad news!" Fi's voice went in and out.

"Really, Fi? ... 'Bad news' ...is putting it mildly. If he were a newspaper, he's be (puff) the obituary section..."

Sam had a plan and told Fi his plans before hanging up and trying to catch up with Nate. He hoped they were near Nate's secret passageway.

Sam didn't look over his shoulder, but he could hear running footsteps behind him. Just a little more, he thought, giving his all to accelerate.

Sam's chest heaved rapidly with heavy panting. Hee-hee-heave. Where'd all the air go? It felt as if they were running the marathon on the moon.

Nate led him to a long pathway between two apartment complexes. Offhandedly Nate started to explain how he knew of this hidden place...

God Almighty, thought Sam, Nate is giving a tea party while he hyperventilates to death.

"...so," continued Nate, looking back at Sam every now and then, as he ran, "she was a nice, elderly lady that liked me as her limo driver and..."

"Nate!" Sam gasped, as his legs were ready to give out, "Right now, I do not need...to hear... (puff!) ... the unedited version of Driving Miss Daisy!

They ran a few yards and then Nate made a sharp turn, with Sam following close behind.

At last they stopped and looked all around. They ended up in a secluded alleyway, all right, but unfortunately, Nate had led them to an area with three blocked sides. They were surrounded by a wall of concrete and two structured walls.

"Nate!" Sam bellowed, when he realized this wasn't an escape route, "What the hell were you thinking? We're trapped!"

"Oops!" was all Nate could say as he looked around the enclosed space, "I think I got mixed up with the buildings. These apartment complexes all look alike!"

Sam and Nate started to backtrack, but found themselves retreating.

The two bad guys slid into the opened space, as they blocked the entrance to the alleyway. Both of them wore malicious smiles as they closed in with their weapons.

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