Protector of Men Ch 50

Shade could only watch in horror as Zandra descended the stairs to what was probably her end. Eventually he mustered the courage to follow her down, but she was already so far down the stairs that he couldn't see her anymore. The sounds below were getting louder with each passing second.

"Zandra," he whispered, pulling out his Walther P99.

"Ssh," she soothed, revealing herself to be closer to him that he originally thought, "It's SWAT. Not agents. It'll give the crew's time to get out." And she motioned for him to join her behind the wall facing the first floor. They could hear the team's hurried suggestions.

"Dustin, move out," they heard a voice say, "Control says this Zandra girl is deadly. Let's not take any chances."

They heard someone move closer to their hiding spot, and Zandra watched the stairs intently. No one found them, nor did anyone care to check the stairwell.

"I can handle this," she told him quietly, getting ready to ambush. Shade was offended.

"I can help," he insisted, taking her arm.

"Okay."

Zandra stepped forward, her gun at eye level. No one had seen them yet, and all Shade and Zandra could see was the wall ahead of them. Only inches away from their protective wall stood a group of five SWAT members, searching the first floor for them. Zandra took another step forward and took a quick peek around the wall. There stood a man, only inches from her, facing away. This is too easy. Shade slowly advanced behind her as she went in for her move.

She kicked him square in the back before he knew what hit him and took his now free M-16 before he hit the ground. He collapsed onto the floor unconscious, just as she had planned. She didn't want to cause any more unnecessary deaths.

But her movement had caused some noise – enough as to alert the rest of the team. They all turned simultaneously, some with varying degrees of fear on their faces. Zandra pitied them for a moment, but not long. She'd have to move quickly – Shade wouldn't be able to ignore bullets, and soon enough they'd use lethal force on the both of them. One down, four to go, she thought. But where are the agents?

She jumped onto the low shelf to her right to get more leverage against her new opponents. Two men were coming for her, and one was going for Shade. Luckily, he had good aim with his gun. In a few seconds one more SWAT was down. Zandra looked to Shade; he gave her a tiny smirk as his gun smoked. There was only a moment before they'd have to go into combat again. A man was coming for Zandra, and coming quickly. But she'd get to him first.

She leapt off of the shelf and knocked into him mid-air, sending him unconscious with a near-lethal kick to the neck. His head jerked to the side and he slumped to the ground, revealing another man behind him. He looked afraid, and Zandra felt the strange feeling of guilt wash over her again. But he was resolute, and instead began to open fire against her with his M-16.

She decided to dodge the bullets this time, knowing that if she ignored them completely, he might have lost it and alerted the agents to their presence. It was folly to believe it would help, but she felt bad. It might have been useless, but it made her feel a little better about what she'd soon have to do to him.

As she dodged the automatic rifle fire, she looked over to Shade. He was fighting with another man, who seemed to be a bit pre-occupied with Zandra's movements. As long as Shade could terminate him, it didn't matter. Shade chopped him in the side of the neck and Zandra watched in slow motion as the man jerked upright, and then fell to the ground, dead. Such a shame.

But Zandra was still evading her own death, and couldn't dodge bullets forever. She could tell that Shade was looking on, and didn't want to leave him waiting, vulnerable… She re-aimed her M-16 and fired twice on the SWAT, once in the shoulder, and once in the leg. He wouldn't die, but he'd be incapacitated from killing them. Everything sped back up as she stopped, looked over to Shade. He nodded once, a smile creeping over his face. It vanished in a moment.

"Base, this is Black Lightning, we have four… agents down…" the man managed, pressing a button on his belt. Zandra watched in horror as he spoke into the receiver in painful panting gasps. It reminded her of Stephen for a moment, but she quickly threw away the idea. Stephen wouldn't hurt us, she reminded herself angrily.

"You poor, uninformed soul," she told him, walking up to his trembling body. He watched Zandra with fearful eyes. A moment later he was dead. She silently mourned the loss of the innocent man, but not for long. They were in a dangerous situation now. Shade looked to her, asking without words for direction. She turned to him, her eyes darting to the door, the window, the stairs, and finally to Shade.

"We have to get out," she told him.

"No need to tell me," he said with a nervous laugh, "The roof?"

She nodded quickly, and then handed him the M-16. "I have my gun," she explained.

They then headed back up the stairs to the roof. They weren't attacked when leaving the hotel, and found no one on the roof to greet them. They were pleased, but knew their urgency.

"Wait," Zandra told Shade as they walked over to the edge of the building, "They might have our phone guarded."

Shade nodded quickly and pulled out his phone before Zandra could. Kesia was on the line in a matter of seconds.

"You're phone's being watched," she told him.

"Where do we go?"

"Straight ahead is where the other crews got out. It's a payphone a few hundred meters ahead, no one on radar."

Shade hung up the phone.

"Straight ahead, on the ground."

She nodded and put her gun into her holster. "Let's jump then." Shade then watched her run to the edge of the building and jump.

It was more of a leap, actually. A flying leap. He hadn't seen it before, but wasn't surprised. Zandra was amazing. Follow suit, he thought. What the hell…

Zandra let the wind push against her as she glided downwards. If only she had all the time in the world, she would just go up – and never come back down…. But time was the problem. Time was always of the essence. Soon she was close enough to the phone and landed on the ground with hardly a sound. She looked backwards at Shade.

He had jumped too, but not nearly as gracefully. He almost tumbled downwards, and landed with a thump before rolling to a nonchalant walk.

The phone began to ring as Shade walked up to her. Zandra noticed that he had discarded his gun, but she didn't care. He'd be out soon, if she got her way. Shade looked at her expectantly, gesturing for the phone.

"You first," she told him assertively. Shade looked away for a second, and then walked over to the phone without a word. He picked up the ringing phone and was gone. It was only then that Zandra noticed the hobo looking on with a mixture of pleasure and wonder on his face. He stood next to the entrance to the subway system, and Zandra noticed multiple watches on his wrist.

She pulled out her gun, expecting him to turn into an agent – but as she did, he began to laugh.

"No need, no need," he told her, waving his hands in a gesture of pacifism, "No jackets here to catch you." He had a strange look in his eye; one that insinuated that he was more than just a harmless onlooker.

Zandra eyed him suspiciously. The phone began to ring again, but she paused before answering it. The man continued to laugh, and got up.

"Why look everywhere for direction," he mused, getting very close to her, "When it's right in front of your face? Right in front…." He continued, waving a hand in front of her nose.

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, nothing at all," he told her, beginning to saunter away, "But this story sure has gotten interesting…"

"What story?"

"Much better than the last one, I tell you, much better…"

And he danced down into the subway system and into the darkness. Zandra watched him stumble lazily into the blackness, wondering what in the hell he had been talking about. It was eerie, and left her a little frightened. It seemed like he knew who she was, but would that make him a program? An agent in disguise? Then why would he have walked away from her…? Right in front of my face?

The phone was still ringing, but Zandra didn't pick it up immediately. Something the man had said was still sticking in her mind. What did he mean, 'one'? Zandra definitely thought that the man knew something… but how much? Right in front of my face…

She looked in front of her at the grafittied telephone booth. Phone numbers, random words, people's names… Gaul.

And there it listed an address.