Wow! i'm really glad you guys like this story! your review are so nice and nice review always give me incentive to write more!! Ok guys here's the next part! enjoy!
Chapter 4: The Get Away
The unconscious diplomat lay slung over Dylan's shoulder as they made their way back to the car known as Nancy. Harper lagged behind with his eyes staring at Vee's rigid back, he knew she was upset just because of how tight her shoulders looked. Her walk wasn't as smooth anymore and her hips didn't sway so heavenly. He kept walking but he could feel cold eyes peered out from around the broken ruins of the now fire doused section of the city. He was walking away with Caranova, their mark, and the rest of his surviving team didn't know why and he wasn't exactly sure why either. The assassins aptly named after letters of the alphabet just watched Harper walk by too afraid to challenge him, even though they knew the legendary guns that were strapped to hips and the shotgun strapped to his back were empty, they knew that Harper was just as deadly with knives. One brave voice yelled out over the roar of the winds and Harper stilled. Vee and Dylan stopped and turned, Vee's eyes pleaded for Harper to just keep walking and to ignore that familiar voice.
"Are you turning your back on Tyr? He will not be pleased. He'll punish us all for failure! Are you just gonna leave us all to that fate?!" the voice rang out, His word dripping with venom. Harpers eyes once again looked up to the heavens, he squinted to see the twinkling stars through the falling snow, the horizon looking just as hot and red as the burning fires all around him as the sun began it's daily routine, but oddly the frozen city didn't feel any warmer. Maybe he was hoping to see the gray shine of the vessel that held his life, or maybe he was just lifting his eyes away from the pain of reality but none the less his eyes were lifted high, searching for something.
"Your fate is your own." He finally said never turning to look at his former comrade who had bravely stepped out of hiding to confront him. The man's jaw was set tight and his hand gripped his holstered gun, obviously not liking Harpers answer. His stubbly 5'oclock shadow gathered drifting snow as he chewed on a bright orange wire, obviously from one of his bombs he had set up during the battle. Normally Harper would have never left himself vulnerable to anyone, especially a trained assassin, but he kept his back turned trusting Dee not to shoot him in the back. He had worked along the explosives expert for years and he knew the man was honorable.
"Don't be a slave forever Dee, one of these days you're gonna have to make a choice. The same choice I'm making now." Harper whispered and began walking again. Dee took two giant steps and pressed his gun deep into Harper's back making him freeze but he didn't seem fazed at all by the turn of events. Vee quickly reacted and the buzz of her gun charging got Dee's attention but he didn't back down. Dee stared menacingly at Vee over Harper's shoulder.
"Don't do this Dee, you owe me. You owe me your life, or have you forgotten?." Harper said through gritted teeth and Dee frowned remembering events from the past, a time when Harper had faced overwhelming odds to save his life. With his lips close to Harper's ear he whispered.
"I do owe you, that's why I'll give you a head start. Ten minutes Zee...use them wisely." Dee stepped back giving Harper room to turn to him.
"That's all I can give you. Like you said Zee, my fate is my own and I choose not to die by Tyr's hand. In ten minutes I'm gonna call Tyr and tell him the situation, undoubtedly he'll ask me to hunt you down...." Dee said just stating the facts, he didn't look like he would enjoy this one bit but he knew it had to be done.
"I will hunt you down without mercy and I will not spare Vee." Dee said and Harper's eyes widened. He squinted at Dee holding his green eyed gaze.
"The countdown begins now." Dee said pushing a small button on his watch. Harper stared a little longer hearing the diminutive tick tock of Dee's stop watch. Time was dwindling fast but Harper couldn't move, he just stared at his comrade and he smiled back at him sincerely. Harper smirked back with a shimmer of understanding in his eyes. It was their way of saying good luck and with that Harper turned on his heels and ran realizing that this was the final decision. He felt a burning in his chest knowing that it was now him against Tyr and his men, or more accurately him against his fabricated life. Dee pulled his communicator out of his pocket and leisurely sat down on a large piece of debris. He spit out the loose wire and lit a cigar watching Harper's retreating form as the rest of the team gathered at his side waiting to make the call that would launch them into action. Harper, Vee and Dylan, charged the steep hill and Harper was impressed that Dylan could keep up while carrying the dead weight of Caranova. Harper jumped in the front seat and Dylan sat in the back, placing the unconscious diplomat beside him. Vee started up the car with a loud roar and drove in reverse. She held on to the passenger seat, looking out the back window and threading the alleyway in reverse with amazing skill. The side mirrors screeched just like before but the pound of panic in their ears dulled the shrill. She made a sharp turn as soon as they left the alley swinging the car around and leaving dark black tire marks on the road as she straightened up, shifted gear and sent the car flying down the snow covered street toward home.
"We shouldn't be going to your house! We should head straight for the Maru!" Dylan said grabbing hold of the front seat to hiss at Harper.
"There's something at the house that we can't leave behind." Harper said calmly. His wife sat beside him, her determination unfaltering.
"Your house is the first place they'll look, is this something more important then your lives?" Dylan said with exasperation, as the car rocked and teetered over piles of snow and slush.
"I don't know...but I can't leave it behind." Harper said giving Vee a quick glance which she returned with a frown that Harper noted but didn't comment on. Time wasn't on there side as they finally made it to their abode. Before she could even stop the car Harper jumped out and took off toward the house. Vee jumped out of her side of the car and promptly popped the trunk.
"You said that the Maru was a cargo ship...how big are the cargo holds?" she asked Dylan who was now standing beside her watching the road for any signs of the angry hit men.
"umm...I don't know...big." Dylan said with confusion wondering how that was relevant to the situation at hand. They had been confusing him a lot lately."
"Let's just hope your idea of big is the same as mine." She said
"Wait here..." She said, unable to wait anymore she joined her husband in the house. The wait was unbearable, time ticked away as Dylan stood by the black car watching out for an attack. His thoughts were frantic, he thought about how he imagined his reunion with Harper would have gone much differently. He had imagined rescuing him from the Drago Katsov, imagined him being happy to see him, glad to be back, ready to get back to the job he loved so much but instead Dylan had found a man so drastically different that he wasn't sure the name Seamus Zelazny Harper even belonged to him anymore. A glimmer hit his eye up the road and it was moving fast.
"We've got company!!" Dylan shouted and just as he did Harper and Vee ran out with armfuls of weapons.
"This was worth your lives!" Dylan spat.
"No, that's just reinforcements. This is what's important." Harper said tossing the sleek weapons into the truck but holding on to a medium sized metal case. It didn't look heavy because he held it with ease and Dylan's mind quickly tried to imagine what could be so important in a box that size. Was it money? Dylan's mind suddenly lost all cohesion as his eyes widened without his permission. They started to glaze over as his knees weakened. He looked down to see red soaking into his black shirt turning it to a murky violet color that was spreading across the material. Dylan looked at Harper in shock teetering forward.
"Dylan!" Vee screamed grabbing him before he fell face first in the snow. Blood quickly covered her hands as she tried to add pressure on the gushing wound on his right side right underneath his ribs.
"God damnit! Only Cee could hit a target from that far away! If Cee's in on this, then this won't be a picnic." Harper said helping Dylan into the car. Vee guided Dylan's hand to the messy wound.
"Put pressure here ok." He nodded out of breath and she took the time to give him a soft smile, telling him without words that they'd get out of this alive. She quickly patted Dylan's shoulder and jumped into the driver's side of the car. She put her hand on the ignition key and Harper reached over putting his hand on hers, noticing how it was shaking.
"This isn't gonna be easy, but we're gonna make it." He said. Suddenly the back window was blown in with a huge crash sending the fractured glass flying forward. Her foot instinctively mashed down one the gas and the car surged forward. Harper turned in his chair to see Dylan paling and sweating as the blood ran down his side and pooled on the leather chair.
"Dylan I need you to focus ok..." Harper said slowly and calmly.
"ok..." Dylan slurred his head feeling heavy and his eyes going in and out of focus.
"What are the Maru's access codes?"
"5...7...." Dylan said then trailed off.
"Come on Dylan focus...this is important. I need to know the Maru's access codes." Harper said more firmly.
"5768213" Dylan said and Harper made a quick mental note of it. He turned back in his chair and looked at Vee.
"Where almost there...but they are seriously gaining on us. At this rate we aren't gonna make it." Vee said and Harper looked into the rear view mirror. They had oversized snow buggies that were built specifically for speed and maneuverability but Harper had built Nancy to withstand anything, today would be the test.
"Don't worry, I've got a plan." Harper said reaching in the pocket of his trench coat. He pulling out several gun clips he had picked up at the house. He quickly loaded all his guns but when it came to his shotgun he did something very different. He quickly dismantled it and reassembled it differently making it look like a totally different machine. He leaned out of the car window, aimed and then fired sending a small heat seeking missile down the enemy's throat. The cart in the very front exploded into flames tumbling backward and smashing into the other buggies behind it. Three of the modified snowmobiles smashed and burned but two from the rear were able to avoid the collision and stayed hot on their tail. Harper gazed at the damage but the twinkle of a sniper riflescope hit his eye. Harper gasped and tried to duck back into the car but before he could a shot rang out and hit him in his shoulder jarring it out of the socket. The bullet went clean through the other side of his shoulder and he leaned back in his chair grunting in agony. He held his left shoulder as the blood ran down his back and his eyes glazed in pain.
"That's the only shot I've got...I slowed them down some but you're gonna have to put the petal to the metal Vee." Harper grunted. Vee looked at him with worry in her eyes but she knew her first priority was the road and her management of the car.
"Your enjoying this" Harper said with a smirk trying to forget the pain.
"I love my job...what can I say..." she said smiling back, making a sharp turn and navigating up a steep incline. Nancy chugged up the hill but was taking it like the beast she was covering ground at an 90 miles an hour pace but the snow buggies were still on their ass. The roads edge was on Harpers side of the car and he studied the landscape looking for the Maru.
"There it is!" she shouted nodding down over the roads edge to the Maru nestled in the trees below. Harper holstered all his weapons and quickly turned his rocket launcher back into a shotgun, grimacing at the searing pain in his shoulder the whole time. The road curved around a large landmass giving the following buggies no view of them.
"Ok now!" Vee shouted and Harper opened his door and jumped out falling over the roads edge and rolling in the snow. He rolled head over foot for several yards before coming to a sick stop. He grunted as he looked down at his leg. It didn't look broken but something was defiantly wrong, pain shot up through his leg and to the middle of his spine. He breathed out the pain and leaned heavily against a tree clawing his way up to a standing position. He looked up the hill he had just tumbled down and saw his shiny creation swerving and dodging the procession of hit men climbing higher and higher up the huge winding mountain.
"Hang in there Vee." He whispered. Drops of blood trailed behind him as he limped his way to the Maru. He used the trees as support but still he fell and tumbled in the snow only to have to clinch his teeth and lift himself up again. He could feel that his body was in need of urgent care, every nerve ending was on fire...his body was on the verge of collapse, the fall had taken it's toll. He could hear gunfire and he gasped. She must have gotten cornered he thought trying to pick up his pace but it shot waves of nausea and agony through his body. He was so close now but his body was ready to give up, he bore down and hobbled to the Maru completely out of breath and feeling broken all over. He keyed in the code to gain access to the Maru and the doors slid open without hesitation. The ship was dark and musty but didn't feel so strange. It felt cozy...but he didn't have time to sink into his emotions. He had to act. He limped to the pilot's chair sputtering and coughing with tears of anguish in his eyes. He lifted his collar to speak to Vee.
"Vee, Vee come in." he spoke weakly, but when he got no response he panicked and adrenalin poured into his tired veins.
"VEE! Please!" But once again he got nothing in response. He clinched his fist and grabbed the controls with a renewed vigor, his pain now forgotten.
"Should be just like riding a bike." He said with hollow smile, flipping switches and turning knobs.
Vee came to an abrupt stop, two boisterous buggies were in front of her and one was behind. They had cornered her but she had given them a run for their money. To her right was a building and to her left was the roads edge what was a steep cliff and the drop seemed to go on for days and days. She gazed at it sizing up the fall but she knew right away that if she went off that cliff they'd all crash and burn. Dylan moaned in the backseat and she looked in the rear view mirror waiting to see his eyes cloud over with death. Everything was silent and all she could hear was her ragged breaths and purr of her tired engines. She slowly slid her hand down off the steering wheel to reach for her gun but just as she did a shot was fired shattering the windshield and grazing her right cheek. She laid her hand back on the steering wheel grimacing and marveling at the accuracy of the shot. A dark crimson drop ran down her cheek from the horizontal cut.
"Cee, don't do this" she said more to herself then anyone else. Over her communicator that sat in her pocket she could hear her love screaming for her but she couldn't lower her hands to respond. She closed her eyes wondering if this was it. She looked up at the red dice on the mirror that still read snake eyes and frowned.
"Vee, be a good girl and hand over Caranova." Dee yelled from his rumbling snow cart, a cigar still hanging from his lips. She didn't say anything just stared at the men. The buggy behind her revved up and bumped her car sharply sending Dylan toppling to the floor with a thud and a torturous moan. Her hair splashed over her face but she didn't dare smooth it back with her hand for fear of another shot being sent her way. She looked at the men through the shaggy strands of her hair knowing that she was truly trapped. Dee stepped out of his car followed by Cee and Two men she didn't recognize. The men in the buggy behind her piled out as well and she counted a total of 6 men. They strolled up to the car and Dee peered through her driver's side window leaning on the window frame and taking a puff of his cigar.
"Sorry girly, but I'm not ready to die." He said rubbing his thumb along her cheek wiping off the syrupy blood. The man named Cee circled the car anxiously. He was slinder with then a thin sharp face and long black hair he kept in a loose bow. His eyes were sharp, just as sharp as his aim, a turqouis pierce of color.
"Where's Zee, he's not in the car!" Cee finally spoke up and a small smile crept across Vee's chocolate face.
"What?" Dee said quickly eyeing the car and the surrounding area.
"Damnit! Zee show yourself or I won't hesitate to put a bullet in her head!" Dee shouted letting his voice echo off or the surrounding buildings. All his men stood ready with guns in their hands and fear in there eyes. Suddenly a rumble could be heard gradually getting louder in intensity. Their eyes looked toward the cliff and up rose a vast brown metal machine. The men gawked in surprise, thrown completely off guard. They quickly realized it was a ship as it continued to rise but it was too late. With the ship rose Harper standing in the open docking bay with his two guns already aimed and ready. As soon as his eyes made contact with his targets he shot off round after round hitting the fuel tanks of the buggies with pinpoint accuracy. They exploded sending fire blossoming into the sky. Vee took that opportunity to maneuver her car sending the men diving for cover as she masterfully maneuvered Nancy. she drove toward the building to her right and then swung the car around recklessly until it was facing the open docking bay. She didn't have much time to pick up speed and she knew it but she was confident that she could make it; she had to make this jump. Harper continued to shoot leaning against the frame of the bay doors heavily. Vee took a deep breath and kissed the rabbit's foot.
"If there was anytime I needed your help...it's now" she said. She stomped down on the gas and the car zoomed forward. She gritted her teeth as sweat beaded on her forehead. The cliff was coming up fast but the car was continuing to pick up speed.
"Come on baby, give me some more!" She said mashing down with all her might. Harper watched with worry as the car zipped over the ground and flew into the air, through the windshield he could see Vee bearing down, her hair flowing around her as the wind blew through the broken windshield. Harper leapt out of the way as the car soared like a bird landing hard into the docking bay. The wheels blew at contact and the metal rims sparked on the Maru's metal floor. The car spun out of control and slid sidelong, skidded to a stop before hitting the back of the bay. Harper pulled himself up yelping at the pain in his leg and spine. He forcefully mashed a big red button and the doors hissed and begun to close slowly shutting out the frantic, fiery scene below. His eyes landed on Dee's and they stared at each other thoughtfully. Dee nodded to him with respect. It wasn't the kind of respect that meant he wasn't going to track him down later; it was the kind of respect that let him know that Dee knew he was the best. As soon as the bay fully closed he ran to the smoking vehicle. Vee still clutched the wheel barely breathing.
"You ok? Vee! Vee say something!" He said grabbing the side of her face with his good arm and smoothing her dark shiny hair behind her ear.
"lucky 7" she said looking at the dice, her face unreadable.
"What are you gawkin' at me for! Hurry and get Dylan to the andromeda. He needs medical attention ASAP." She said trying to be strong but Harper knew she was shaken and he really didn't blame her. She had just performed a feat that deserved serious recognition later. Harper leaned in and kissed her cheek and hobbled for the bridge. He jumped over the railing, his trench coat trailing behind, and landed firmly in the pilot's chair running on pure adrenaline and luck. He buckled in and grabbed the controls. He pulled them back and the Maru began to climb. He opened a channel with hesitation knowing that for the first time he would be communicating to his former family.
"Andromeda Ascendant this is the Eureka Maru requesting dock." Harper said suddenly feeling woozy from the loss of blood and the intense pain from his back was slamming into his nerve endings.
"Harper?!" came the sudden gasp of a women with tears in her voice but he was too tired to respond. As they broke through the planets atmosphere he could see a shimmer of gray ahead that looked like a bright heavenly star. He smiled gazing at it through his foggy blue orbs.
"lucky 7" he said before his eyes fluttered and then fell...darkening his world.
TBC...