Chapter 10: Professional Problems
"a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the
chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in
doing anything he is doing right or wrong-acting the part of a
good man or of a bad."
"The Apology of Socrates"
Plato
(The sound of metal on metal screeched in his ears as Vicious' sword struck his gun. They traded blow after blow, each wounding the numerous times. Spike already knew how it would end. He would win but he wouldn't feel any real triumph in his victory. He would stare down at the visage of his oldest friend as the life drained from his body in a red stream. A twinge of regret, then only the cold.
He staggered back into the building and slowly began to descend. It had yet to occur to him that he didn't know where he was going. Only that he should leave. When he reached the steps he indifferently noticed that he was no longer in pain. That should have worried him but he was much to cold to worry. The stairs seemed to go on forever. He determinedly put one foot in front of the other continuing as though he had a purpose, like he was Orpheus on his way to retrieve his Eurydice. But Julia was dead and unlike Orpheus he wouldn't be permitted to travel into the Underworld to bring her back. 'Maybe I'll join her.' He smiled at the thought then frowned as another face and a shock of violet hair flashed before his eyes. 'She'll be sad.' He thought of his friends, those he would be leaving behind. 'Is it worth it? Is she worth leaving them?'
He paused looking up from his reverie to see fifteen or so Red Dragons gathered at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him in surprise. None had reached for their weapons yet. 'Well, they aren't very well trained.' Smirking at the irony he raised his hand and pointed it like a gun. "Bang." Then everything faded away and there was only darkness.)
Spike sat up in bed breathing heavily. He groaned. "Dreams suck." Untangling himself from his sheets, he climbed to his feet and made his way out to the kitchen for a glass of water. He shivered at the overactive air- conditioning in the kitchen and silently reflected on the benefits of sleeping in more clothing than just boxers.
After several minutes of hunting through unfamiliar cabinets in search of a glass, Spike successfully found one and filled it with tap water. He took a sip then turned to lean on the counter. 'So this is my life.'
He was interrupted from his somber reflections by a pounding on the door followed quickly by the sound of someone scraping a key in the lock. Spike tensed, looking around for a handy weapon. His eyes settled on a knife rack and he pulled a wicked looking one from its place, testing its weight before turning to face the door.
It opened quickly slamming into the wall behind it. Lucas stumbled in, gun in hand. "Spike!" He threw the door closed and locked it quickly. "Spike! We gotta get out here."
"What's going on?" Lucas jumped as he heard Spike's voice come from somewhere other than the bedroom.
Lucas took a painful breath. "We've got a problem. Assassins. This time there are more then one and they're most definitely professionals. The guards won't be able to hold them off for long."
Spike calmly studied the other man. "Were you shot?"
"Huh?" Lucas looked down at the blood running down his arm. "Yeah, I guess so. We need to leave now. There isn't much time."
"I'll get my gun." Spike headed for his bedroom. He pulled a pair of jeans on over his boxers and grabbed a t-shirt before grabbing his gun from the nightstand. He crossed the room to the closet grabbing a leather jacket and pulling that on as well.
Spike quickly made his way back to the front door where Lucas was waiting for him. "Ready?" Spike nodded. Lucas reached to open the door but Spike stepped around him so that he could take point. He nodded to Lucas again. Lucas opened the door and Spike stepped through quickly gun ready. The hallway was empty but the floor indicator above the elevator door signaled an approaching car.
Spike looked back at Lucas. "They couldn't have a key to this floor could they?" The floor indicator counted steadily, passing one floor after another.
Lucas shook his head. "They don't need one. They have a hacker."
Spike sighed. 'Now he tells me.' "Let's go back inside. We'll have to take them out to get to the elevator."
"No. There's an emergency staircase to the floor below in you bedroom. They shouldn't know about that. It's not in the original blueprints."
The two men moved back into the apartment and Spike locked the door behind them. Silently, they made their way to the bedroom and Lucas pulled a book off the shelf and reached behind it. He pushed a small knot in the wood causing a section of wall on the other side of the room to slide away, revealing a set of narrow, dark stairs leading down. Spike met Lucas' eyes. The other man nodded and Spike moved into the stairwell ahead of him, sniffing the stale air and storing the information for future reference. Lucas pressed a button beside the opening and the wall slid closed, sealing them in.
When they reached the bottom, Lucas moved around Spike and fumbled for another button. After a moment the wall in front of them slid quietly aside and Spike stepped out into a furnished apartment. He stepped aside, letting Lucas move past him to lead the way. They fell back on old training that both men had received at the hands of the Red Dragons, creeping quietly in formation, alert for the slightest sound. They reached the front door without incident and Spike spared another glance for Lucas' wounded shoulder. He noted with mild satisfaction that the wound wasn't bleeding much and that though his face was a little pale, Lucas didn't seem to be going into shock.
Lucas opened the door to the apartment and Spike took point once again, moving quickly into the hallway and moving to cover Lucas. Lucas darted from the open doorway to stand at Spike's back. The two men exchanged a glance and began making their way toward another door and flight of steps.
Just as Lucas reached out to pull the door open, it burst outward slamming into his face and knocking him to the floor. A muzzle flared and Spike felt the gun fly from his hand as a bullet slammed into his shoulder. He went with his momentum and rolled as he hit the ground coming up beside his gun. All he needed was two seconds to reach for it with his other hand and fire but as he looked up he knew it would be two seconds too late.
The thunder of a gun going off echoed through the narrow hallway and down the stairs through the still open door. The pain Spike expected never came and he turned his gaze to Lucas as the would-be assassin that stood in between them dropped to the ground. "Nice shot."
Lucas sent a concerned look in Spike's direction before using the door to pull himself to his feet. "Thanks. You ok?"
"Yeah. No problem."
That established, they moved into the stairwell, twice as cautious as they had been before. The two men descended quickly, heading for a parking garage located beneath the building. Spike pushed the door leading into the dimly lit parking area and scanned it, the path of his gun following his eyes. Nodding to Lucas, both men proceeded into the concrete structure.
'Something's off.' Spike's eyes flicked back and forth between cars looking for anything that would explain the twinge of warning he felt in his gut. BANG! A bullet hit his side. BANG! Lucas dropped as a piece of hot metal imbedded itself in her calf. Both men immediately began firing at where they surmised the shots had come from. A grunt from behind a new red Corvette with fresh bullet holes indicated one of them had hit their mark. "You ok?" Spike directed at the man that was, at least for the moment, his new partner.
"Won't be able to walk very far. Sorry." Lucas looked slightly ashamed, as though he failed somehow.
"For getting shot again? I got hit too."
"How bad?"
Spike glanced unconcerned at the wound in his abdomen. "Just a scratch." He moved to help Lucas to his feet. "Got any ideas?"
"Get out of here?"
Spike rolled his eyes and pointed at a black Mazda something he didn't really recognize. He began a slow limp in its direction. "That looks like a good one."
Lucas followed him at an even slower pace, dragging his left leg. "Good enough for me. We can't go to the hospital and we definitely can't go to the Syndicate."
Spike stopped short and turned back to his associate. "And why can't we go to the Syndicate?"
"Those guys were good. They had to have been hired by someone with a lot of money. They also had information that only a select few of the Syndicate higher-ups were privy to. They shouldn't have known where you were much less how to get in." Lucas moved past Spike to the passenger door of the car and tossed a set of keys at Spike.
Spike quirked an eyebrow but didn't ask about the keys. "Where should we go then? If members of the Syndicate are involved then we can't trust anyone." He climbed into the vehicle and slipped the key into the ignition.
Lucas climbed carefully in and pulled his door shut before answering. "I don't know. We should probably get off the planet until I can investigate this properly."
Spike sat staring out the windshield for a moment in quiet contemplation before saying, "I could call Jet." He turned the key starting the car.
Lucas thought it over. "I don't see a whole lot of choice. They're completely outside the Syndicate." He turned a serious gaze to Spike as the car pulled smoothly from the parking space. "Can we trust them with this?"
Spike nodded solemnly. "I would trust Jet with my life."
Lucas nodded. "All right."
The two men drove about twenty miles outside of town and stopped at a dilapidated gas station. Spike got out and walked over to the payphone. He swiped a cash card through the appropriate slot and dialed.
"Hello?"
Spike released a breath he hadn't known that he'd been holding. "Jet, I'm sorry."
Jet's voice came back relieved and suspicious at the same time. "What for?"
"Getting in over my head and calling you to bail me out again."
There was a pause before Jet replied. "That had to hurt."
Spike chuckled softly. "You have no idea."
"What do you need?"
He turned to look at the car where Lucas waited and gave him a quick nod to let him know it was working out. "A pick-up for a friend and I. And it has to be very quiet and very quick."
"Hold on." There were some muffled noises as Jet spoke to someone while holding a hand over the receiver. "Ed, traced your position. You're just lucky we're close by."
"Thanks, Jet." Spike hung up the phone and stumbled back to the car. "They're coming."
Lucas' face was pale. "Good. I hope your friend is good at playing doctor, and I mean that in the non-gutter sense of the term."
Spike grinned at the joke. "Yeah, Jet learned real fast after he met me."
"How long 'til he gets here?"
"Don't know." Spike sighed and dropped into the driver's seat again. "He said they were close."
"Good. I hate the sight of my own blood."
Spike grinned. "You and me both." He closed his eyes, leaning back against the seat and trying to relax while he awaited Jet's latest rescue.
tbc(pretty please with lots of sugar and chocolate and .etc. on top review)
and to all of you who have.thanks bunches
"a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the
chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in
doing anything he is doing right or wrong-acting the part of a
good man or of a bad."
"The Apology of Socrates"
Plato
(The sound of metal on metal screeched in his ears as Vicious' sword struck his gun. They traded blow after blow, each wounding the numerous times. Spike already knew how it would end. He would win but he wouldn't feel any real triumph in his victory. He would stare down at the visage of his oldest friend as the life drained from his body in a red stream. A twinge of regret, then only the cold.
He staggered back into the building and slowly began to descend. It had yet to occur to him that he didn't know where he was going. Only that he should leave. When he reached the steps he indifferently noticed that he was no longer in pain. That should have worried him but he was much to cold to worry. The stairs seemed to go on forever. He determinedly put one foot in front of the other continuing as though he had a purpose, like he was Orpheus on his way to retrieve his Eurydice. But Julia was dead and unlike Orpheus he wouldn't be permitted to travel into the Underworld to bring her back. 'Maybe I'll join her.' He smiled at the thought then frowned as another face and a shock of violet hair flashed before his eyes. 'She'll be sad.' He thought of his friends, those he would be leaving behind. 'Is it worth it? Is she worth leaving them?'
He paused looking up from his reverie to see fifteen or so Red Dragons gathered at the bottom of the stairs looking up at him in surprise. None had reached for their weapons yet. 'Well, they aren't very well trained.' Smirking at the irony he raised his hand and pointed it like a gun. "Bang." Then everything faded away and there was only darkness.)
Spike sat up in bed breathing heavily. He groaned. "Dreams suck." Untangling himself from his sheets, he climbed to his feet and made his way out to the kitchen for a glass of water. He shivered at the overactive air- conditioning in the kitchen and silently reflected on the benefits of sleeping in more clothing than just boxers.
After several minutes of hunting through unfamiliar cabinets in search of a glass, Spike successfully found one and filled it with tap water. He took a sip then turned to lean on the counter. 'So this is my life.'
He was interrupted from his somber reflections by a pounding on the door followed quickly by the sound of someone scraping a key in the lock. Spike tensed, looking around for a handy weapon. His eyes settled on a knife rack and he pulled a wicked looking one from its place, testing its weight before turning to face the door.
It opened quickly slamming into the wall behind it. Lucas stumbled in, gun in hand. "Spike!" He threw the door closed and locked it quickly. "Spike! We gotta get out here."
"What's going on?" Lucas jumped as he heard Spike's voice come from somewhere other than the bedroom.
Lucas took a painful breath. "We've got a problem. Assassins. This time there are more then one and they're most definitely professionals. The guards won't be able to hold them off for long."
Spike calmly studied the other man. "Were you shot?"
"Huh?" Lucas looked down at the blood running down his arm. "Yeah, I guess so. We need to leave now. There isn't much time."
"I'll get my gun." Spike headed for his bedroom. He pulled a pair of jeans on over his boxers and grabbed a t-shirt before grabbing his gun from the nightstand. He crossed the room to the closet grabbing a leather jacket and pulling that on as well.
Spike quickly made his way back to the front door where Lucas was waiting for him. "Ready?" Spike nodded. Lucas reached to open the door but Spike stepped around him so that he could take point. He nodded to Lucas again. Lucas opened the door and Spike stepped through quickly gun ready. The hallway was empty but the floor indicator above the elevator door signaled an approaching car.
Spike looked back at Lucas. "They couldn't have a key to this floor could they?" The floor indicator counted steadily, passing one floor after another.
Lucas shook his head. "They don't need one. They have a hacker."
Spike sighed. 'Now he tells me.' "Let's go back inside. We'll have to take them out to get to the elevator."
"No. There's an emergency staircase to the floor below in you bedroom. They shouldn't know about that. It's not in the original blueprints."
The two men moved back into the apartment and Spike locked the door behind them. Silently, they made their way to the bedroom and Lucas pulled a book off the shelf and reached behind it. He pushed a small knot in the wood causing a section of wall on the other side of the room to slide away, revealing a set of narrow, dark stairs leading down. Spike met Lucas' eyes. The other man nodded and Spike moved into the stairwell ahead of him, sniffing the stale air and storing the information for future reference. Lucas pressed a button beside the opening and the wall slid closed, sealing them in.
When they reached the bottom, Lucas moved around Spike and fumbled for another button. After a moment the wall in front of them slid quietly aside and Spike stepped out into a furnished apartment. He stepped aside, letting Lucas move past him to lead the way. They fell back on old training that both men had received at the hands of the Red Dragons, creeping quietly in formation, alert for the slightest sound. They reached the front door without incident and Spike spared another glance for Lucas' wounded shoulder. He noted with mild satisfaction that the wound wasn't bleeding much and that though his face was a little pale, Lucas didn't seem to be going into shock.
Lucas opened the door to the apartment and Spike took point once again, moving quickly into the hallway and moving to cover Lucas. Lucas darted from the open doorway to stand at Spike's back. The two men exchanged a glance and began making their way toward another door and flight of steps.
Just as Lucas reached out to pull the door open, it burst outward slamming into his face and knocking him to the floor. A muzzle flared and Spike felt the gun fly from his hand as a bullet slammed into his shoulder. He went with his momentum and rolled as he hit the ground coming up beside his gun. All he needed was two seconds to reach for it with his other hand and fire but as he looked up he knew it would be two seconds too late.
The thunder of a gun going off echoed through the narrow hallway and down the stairs through the still open door. The pain Spike expected never came and he turned his gaze to Lucas as the would-be assassin that stood in between them dropped to the ground. "Nice shot."
Lucas sent a concerned look in Spike's direction before using the door to pull himself to his feet. "Thanks. You ok?"
"Yeah. No problem."
That established, they moved into the stairwell, twice as cautious as they had been before. The two men descended quickly, heading for a parking garage located beneath the building. Spike pushed the door leading into the dimly lit parking area and scanned it, the path of his gun following his eyes. Nodding to Lucas, both men proceeded into the concrete structure.
'Something's off.' Spike's eyes flicked back and forth between cars looking for anything that would explain the twinge of warning he felt in his gut. BANG! A bullet hit his side. BANG! Lucas dropped as a piece of hot metal imbedded itself in her calf. Both men immediately began firing at where they surmised the shots had come from. A grunt from behind a new red Corvette with fresh bullet holes indicated one of them had hit their mark. "You ok?" Spike directed at the man that was, at least for the moment, his new partner.
"Won't be able to walk very far. Sorry." Lucas looked slightly ashamed, as though he failed somehow.
"For getting shot again? I got hit too."
"How bad?"
Spike glanced unconcerned at the wound in his abdomen. "Just a scratch." He moved to help Lucas to his feet. "Got any ideas?"
"Get out of here?"
Spike rolled his eyes and pointed at a black Mazda something he didn't really recognize. He began a slow limp in its direction. "That looks like a good one."
Lucas followed him at an even slower pace, dragging his left leg. "Good enough for me. We can't go to the hospital and we definitely can't go to the Syndicate."
Spike stopped short and turned back to his associate. "And why can't we go to the Syndicate?"
"Those guys were good. They had to have been hired by someone with a lot of money. They also had information that only a select few of the Syndicate higher-ups were privy to. They shouldn't have known where you were much less how to get in." Lucas moved past Spike to the passenger door of the car and tossed a set of keys at Spike.
Spike quirked an eyebrow but didn't ask about the keys. "Where should we go then? If members of the Syndicate are involved then we can't trust anyone." He climbed into the vehicle and slipped the key into the ignition.
Lucas climbed carefully in and pulled his door shut before answering. "I don't know. We should probably get off the planet until I can investigate this properly."
Spike sat staring out the windshield for a moment in quiet contemplation before saying, "I could call Jet." He turned the key starting the car.
Lucas thought it over. "I don't see a whole lot of choice. They're completely outside the Syndicate." He turned a serious gaze to Spike as the car pulled smoothly from the parking space. "Can we trust them with this?"
Spike nodded solemnly. "I would trust Jet with my life."
Lucas nodded. "All right."
The two men drove about twenty miles outside of town and stopped at a dilapidated gas station. Spike got out and walked over to the payphone. He swiped a cash card through the appropriate slot and dialed.
"Hello?"
Spike released a breath he hadn't known that he'd been holding. "Jet, I'm sorry."
Jet's voice came back relieved and suspicious at the same time. "What for?"
"Getting in over my head and calling you to bail me out again."
There was a pause before Jet replied. "That had to hurt."
Spike chuckled softly. "You have no idea."
"What do you need?"
He turned to look at the car where Lucas waited and gave him a quick nod to let him know it was working out. "A pick-up for a friend and I. And it has to be very quiet and very quick."
"Hold on." There were some muffled noises as Jet spoke to someone while holding a hand over the receiver. "Ed, traced your position. You're just lucky we're close by."
"Thanks, Jet." Spike hung up the phone and stumbled back to the car. "They're coming."
Lucas' face was pale. "Good. I hope your friend is good at playing doctor, and I mean that in the non-gutter sense of the term."
Spike grinned at the joke. "Yeah, Jet learned real fast after he met me."
"How long 'til he gets here?"
"Don't know." Spike sighed and dropped into the driver's seat again. "He said they were close."
"Good. I hate the sight of my own blood."
Spike grinned. "You and me both." He closed his eyes, leaning back against the seat and trying to relax while he awaited Jet's latest rescue.
tbc(pretty please with lots of sugar and chocolate and .etc. on top review)
and to all of you who have.thanks bunches