Chapter nine,
After his little talk with Larry, Sam had let out a sigh of relief, it was obvious from the conversation Mike hadn't revealed where the thumb drive was being held. That was one weight off his mind. Now he just needed to ditch the two cars behind him. One glance at the dials on the dashboard told him the Mustang was almost out of gas, he needed to make a decision on what to do, fast.
He ended up making a loop back towards the car park where they had started off the evening. The streets surrounding the area were now filled with partying holidaymakers. Eventually he had to pull over, as the amount of traffic and pedestrians had slowed him down to a crawl. Getting out of the car he noticed Vaughn's men were out of their vehicles as well.
Moving as swiftly as he could, he joined the throng of drunken tourists, weaving in and out of the variety of bars and cafes, sliding in amongst the packed tables and chairs making sure he never offered the men following an opportunity of a clear shot or a chance to surround him.
Vaughn's men knew that they couldn't open fire, at least not without attracting an awful lot of attention. They weren't bothered, they were younger and fitter, and confident they could easily run down one older and heavier man.
Sam started to move with a purpose, he had a destination in mind. He broke free of the crowd and out onto the harbour wall. He was now running as fast as he could, his chest beginning to burn from the exertion, years of too much beer, too much rich food and nowhere near enough exercise were taking their toll. After one last look behind him, he lauched himself into the deep water of the harbour. Staying under the surface he struck out, wanting to put as much distance from his entry point as possible.
Many years ago he would have been capable of staying underwater for a good four minutes. Now he had to surface after two. He came up for air inbetween two yachts, as he floated his head just above the water he listened out for his pursuers. Over the noise of the revellers he could hear someone running along the wall, then a voice.
"We've lost him, he dived into the harbour and we can't see a thing out there." Some one talking on a phone, he guessed as he only got one side of the conversation.
"Ok we'll be there soon." Sam felt a moment of relief, they weren't going to continue their search. Then he realized that probably meant that Fiona and Jesse were about to face even more men.
...
"Come on time to wake up." Larry opened the passenger door of the Jeep and caught hold of Michael before he fell out of the vehicle. Pushing him back onto the seat, he used two fingers against Michael's neck to check his pulse. Satisfied, he gave the sleeping man a hard shake of the shoulders.
After a bit of mumbled complaining Michael opened his eyes and shifted on the seat to a more upright position. He wearily rubbed his eyes and looked outside noting how dark it had become.
"Where are we?" He asked, still struggling to keep his eyes open.
Larry ignored the question."Look, I'm going to get us another car, you need to pull yourself together. We've got a lot of work ahead of us tonight."
Michael perked up a bit at the talk of work. What was Larry up to?
"I got a call while you were asleep. I'll tell you about it when I get back, and you're more awake." Before Michael could ask any questions he shut the car door and headed off down the street.
Michael's eyes stayed open for a few seconds then he dropped back off to sleep.
...
Jesse had crept down the stairs and found the crumpled sheet of tarpaulin, using a folding knife Fiona had given him from her pocket he cut a long strip from the cloth, grateful that neither of them had any open wounds.
A loud crash outside made him jump, another crash came and he saw the wood he had used over the door they had come through begin to give. Vaughn was coming inside, with the improvised bandage in his hand he ran back up the stairs. After wrapping Fiona's injured wrist, they made their way up to the next floor.
"Fiona!" Vaughn shouted out, his voice carrying clearly through the building. "I'm only interested in Michael, tell me where he is and you and Agent Porter can be on your way."
She didn't bother replying, how stupid did he think she was? It was insulting.
While Jesse kept a watch on the stairwell, Fiona scouted out the various rooms off the corridor. Her eyes lit up when she found what she had been hunting for, a store room. Pulling a clip out of her hair she set about picking the lock. She had the door open in seconds and shone Jesse's torch around the room, a smile came to her face. Cleaning supplies, lots of lovely flammable cleaning supplies. Maybe not as many as she would like but enough to make Vaughn's men pause for thought if they came much closer.
"Jesse." She poked her head out of the room. "Do you have a lighter or matches?" She pursed her lips as he shook his head. She wasn't beaten yet.
...
Larry lacked Michael's finesse when it came to stealing cars. He had never bothered to develop the skills to break into and then hot wire a vehicle. He prefered the more direct approach.
He had parked up in a quiet fairly well to do residential area, the houses were all detached with long sweeping drive ways. Most of them also were surrounded by trees and bushes to give the owners a bit of privacy. He was beginning to lose hope of an easy target, when he spotted what he was looking for.
An open garage, and a man vacuuming out his fairly new looking BMW. Gun in hand, silencer in place, Larry crept along the line of bushes. Once he was as close as he could get without being seen he waited for the chance to take his shot.
Even as the man's body hit the ground Larry was inside the garage and was listening out in case the shot had been heard. When no one came to investigate, he searched the man's pockets and found the keys. As quietly as he could he pushed the car out on to the drive and shut the garage doors. He let the vehicle roll out on to the road before he started the engine.
He pulled up behind the Jeep, an annoyed scowl twisting his lips, when he saw Michael had fallen back asleep. Banging on the window to wake him up. It vaguely crossed Larry's mind that maybe Michael needed a proper rest and but he dismissed the thought, the kid had kept going with far worse injuries, he could do so again.
"Out now Michael." He ordered, pulling the younger man out and on to his feet. "You need to start focussing, if you want to save your girlfriend's life." That got his attention. Larry thought as Michael's eyes snapped open.
"What have you done?" Came the instant accusation.
"Me? Nothing. Axe rang me, Fiona has got herself cornered by Vaughn. I said we would help." He paused, just for a second. "But, first you're going to tell me where Axe hid the thumb drive and don't bother lying to me, I know you too well." He wasn't as sure about this last statement as he made out, that was until he saw Michael's reaction.
Michael swayed and leant on the Jeep to stop himself falling over, he shook his head. "I can't tell you where it's being held." He answered his tone flat and emotionless.
Larry shrugged. "Ok, so you don't care as much about Fiona as I thought you did. We still need that drive though. I thought I had made it clear before, it's the price for my assistance."
Michael had a hand up rubbing his eyes, he looked absolutely worn out. "I'll go and get it myself." He offered.
"You can't drive at the moment. In fact without me you would of been arrested a long time ago. " Larry pointed out. "We go together, or Fi most likely dies and you sit at the side of the road and wait to get picked up by the cops."
Michael ran both his hands over his face, then up through his hair, he was trapped, if he wanted to save Fiona he was going to have to take Larry to the thumb drive.
Eventually he spoke. "Ok.I'll show you where it is." He sounded defeated.
"Well let's get going." Larry opened the passenger door of their new car. "Sooner we get that drive, the sooner you get to kill Vaughn and save the girl." He couldn't of been happier, it didn't matter now what Sam Axe did to try and stop him. The boy scout would be too late.
