Ezekiel Jones And the Silver Coin

Chapter Eleven

"You did what?" Regina asked angrily over the phone, having called Carlyle in order to see how his progress was going so far even though it has only been less than a day since she hired him.

"For crying out loud, Regina, would you just calm down and trust that I know what I'm doing?" he answered in frustration, while Ezekiel continued to drive to wherever his kidnapper told him to go, pretending to ignore the conversation between the man and his associate. "You hired me for a job and I will get it done, but I'm going to do it my way. This kid is going to help me catch McRaney."

She asked again, "Do you even know who he is yet? For all you know, they could just be rival thieves."

Carlyle responded, "They're thieves who seem to know each other pretty well, not to mention they're both Koreans with Australian accents. I am willing to bet that they're related somehow, perhaps even brothers. You know what, I really don't have to explain myself to you. Don't call me again. I'll be in touch with you when Davin's dead. I'm hanging up now."

"Change of plans, we're not going to meet up with my associate after all," the man stated again once he got off of the phone and turned to look over at the young man driving his car. "We're going to go someplace where we can talk in private and won't be disturbed."

"Where's your cockiness now, boy?" the man continued when Ezekiel didn't say a word. "I'll allow you to talk, as much as you would like to."

The young thief stared ahead while he replied quietly, "There's nothing for me to talk to you about."

The hitman chuckled as he answered, "Actually, you have a lot to talk to me about. And eventually you will. I want to know everything about you. Who you are and even more importantly, how you came to be involved with Davin McRaney."

"There's not much to tell," Ezekiel responded calmly, despite feeling anger building up inside the more this man spoke as he clenched his free hand into a fist. "I don't know any Davin McRaney, only who he was once. I'm a thief, nothing more. Before all of this happened, I would have told you that I'm the world's greatest thief, but… Look, if you want to know who I am to this psycho you're foolishly trying to kill, you will just have to ask him before he puts a bullet between your eyes, if you can. But he may not give you the chance. In fact, I'm willing to bet he won't. You don't know him like I do."

"I'm really starting to like you, kid," Carlyle replied smugly. "But you underestimate me."

Jones retorted, "Actually, you're overestimating yourself, mate."

Later that evening inside the Annex…

Both Jake and Cassandra were growing increasingly concerned about their friend, as the two of them started to pace back and forth around the table, trying to think of something else that would help them find the Australian. While Eve and Flynn were worried too, they were acting more levelheaded as they worked to try to get a location on either Ezekiel or Levi. So far, both thieves were invisible. It didn't surprise them, but the harder they looked, the more frustrated they became.

Baird finally stopped reading the older brother's file as she slammed it down in frustration on the table and said coolly, "Neither one of you are helping matters. You do realize that, don't you?"

"Don't think we don't know that!" Jake answered angrily as he glared back at the Colonel. "That fool is risking his life to protect us, again and we just let him go!"

"Jake's right," Cassandra responded in agreement. "He's acting foolishly, because it's his brother who's the monster and he feels responsible, but we have to reassure him that he doesn't have to fight him alone. He doesn't know that we care about him. At least not anymore he doesn't. He has no memory of us treating him with respect after the whole time loop, video game fiasco. He still thinks that we still think of him like he's irresponsible, like we don't believe he actually belongs here with us."

Flynn finally cut in as he replied, "You know, I couldn't actually believe that Ezekiel Jones of all people did all of that after Jenkins explained to me what happened on your last mission. I still can't wrap my head around it, but if you say he did all that…"

Eve nodded as she answered, "I promise you, it's true. I'm not sure I would have believed it either if I wasn't there, but I was. He was amazing. And he gave his life for us, so we're going to return the favor and protect him now whether he wants us to or not."

"But how are we going to find him when he knows how to disappear?" Jake asked again in frustration.

"We may not know where he is right at this moment, but I think I might know where we can start," Flynn spoke up again as he stared at the clipping book as its pages suddenly began to flip wildly until it finally stopped, ending on a new page the Librarians haven't seen before. "This article says that there's been a new murder involving Ezekiel's brother again."

Cassandra stuttered as she responded fearfully, "Plea… please, don't let it be…"

Eve gripped her gently by her shoulders to stop her as she replied, "Don't worry, it's not Ezekiel. He's still okay for now. The book would surely let us know if something's happened to him, all right?"

"Okay, so who is it this time?" Jake asked gruffly. "Who did Levi kill?"

"It looks like some hitman and thief by the name of Carlyle O'Brien," Flynn said with a sigh as he showed the others the article too. "Exactly what is a hitman's involvement in all this?"