Chapter 18

"It's Luke. Faison has got him. He wants you to meet him in an hour. Alone," Holly finished. She passed the letter over to Robert. He scanned it quickly and took a deep breath.

"Here we go. Right, so I'm going to fish Spencer out of trouble and you're going to stay here."

"Stay here? I don't think so, you need backup," announced Holly.

Robert gave Holly the sternest look he could muster. "Need I remind you of our conversation this morning? Faison has tried to kill you in the past and won't hesitate to try again."

"It's you he really wants to kill, Robert."

Robert rubbed his head in frustration. "Let me make myself clear. You. are. not. coming. I can work more efficiently if I'm not worrying about you. Please, luv, just humour me." He looked at her imploringly.

Holly met his gaze head on. She saw the utter concern in his eyes and relented. "Fine. I'll stay behind. But if you get yourself killed again, Robert Scorpio..."

"I won't. I promise." He kissed her fast, but hard, and then wrapped her in his arms. "I have even more incentive to be careful now. I love you, but I've gotta go."

"Ok," replied Holly sadly. As Robert walked out the door, she glanced quickly at the clock. It read 11:37. The meeting was at 12:30.

Five minutes later, Holly looked at the clock again and smirked slightly. She thought to herself, "Robert's getting soft. I can't believe he thought I would give in that quickly." Grabbing a jacket, she went out the door, having memorized the address on the letter when she read it. She knew she had to catch the same train that Robert was taking back to the village; obviously she had to also make sure he didn't notice her. She ran down the street to the train station, attracting the attention of one of Faison's goons, who began running as well.

Holly watched Robert get on the train, and hopped on herself several cars down from the one that Robert had entered. The man trailing her discreetly got on the same car.

At the village of Furtado, all three disembarked, along with a handful of other passengers. With the virus still raging, few dared travel to Furtado. Holly ducked behind a billboard so that Robert wouldn't see her. She let him get quite a few paces ahead of her, then she took another route to the address from the letter. The last thing she wanted was for Robert to notice her before she actually made it to Faison's rendez-vous point. Her pursuer followed behind as well, content for her to make it to her destination.

Holly peeked around the corner and scanned the street for any sign of Robert. Satisfied that he must have already entered the building, she crossed the street and tried the door. It was locked. "Maybe I can waltz in the back door instead?" she thought to herself. To her delight, the back entrance to the two-story building was open. Entering cautiously, Holly crept through the corridors of the abandoned building, which looked like it had once served as an industrial bakery. She heard footfalls and jumped behind a door, heart pounding. Hearing the sounds grow dimmer as the person continued down the hall, Holly let out her breath and returned to the corridor, heading in the opposite direction from the person she heard.

Meanwhile, the maker of those footsteps moved swiftly down the hallway and down the stairs, hands on his gun, eyes scanning the hallway as he went. Robert was beginning to get frustrated that not only was there no sign of Luke anywhere in the building, there was no sign of Faison either. Robert Scorpio had always had patience on his side, but he just wanted to get this whole situation over with. Killing Cesar Faison, the man who had messed up his life in so many ways, would put such a period on a time of his life that he was more than happy to move on from.

Holly found a staircase and decided to try her luck. She went up one flight and found herself in a narrow hallway. She began trying doors, and was delighted on her third try to find Luke, handcuffed to some sort of old-fashioned kneading machine.

"English!" Luke exclaimed. "Where's Scorp?"

"To be honest, I thought he would have found you already. He's got to be around somewhere. I folllowed him here."

"Oh, he is going to kill you." Holly shot Luke a dirty look over his choice of words. "Sorry, Holly. He will be none too pleased to see you."

"Your friend may not be, but we are," jeered the Crylium goon as he entered the room, pressing a gun to Holly's upper back. Holly didn't have time to think as an old instinct kicked in. She reached quickly around, grabbing the gun and flipping the man in a perfectly-executed single hand thrust. Luke moved out of the way as best he could, given that he was handcuffed to the machine. It was enough so that the thug's head came round and bounced off the mixing bowl, knocking him unconscious. Holly looked down at the man, first in surprise, then with self-satisfaction. She quickly removed his gun from his hand and began searching his pockets for the keys to Luke's handcuffs.

Holly found the keys and unlocked Luke. They replaced the cuffs on the goon. Luke immediately reached for the gun. "Give it to me, English."

"Why should I do that?"

"You hate guns, Holly. And you have horrible aim. Remember just a few months when you managed to shoot me in the leg?"

"Who says I wasn't aiming for you, Luke?" Holly replied with a smirk as she handed the gun over to Luke. He took it, giving her a mistrustful look. She smiled sweetly in return.

As they headed back into the corridor, shots erupted. Luke managed to get off a couple of good return shots and silence descended once again. He lowered himself to the ground with a moan.

"What happened?" asked Holly. "Luke, are you OK?" She looked down at him and saw that his leg was bleeding.

"Ugh. Now I have a matched set." Luke grimaced in pain. "It's ok, I'll be fine." Holly handed him her jacket which he turned into a bandage. "English, here, take the gun. You go find Scorpio."

"No, Luke, you keep it. You're a sitting duck right now. What if more thugs come along? Besides, you're absolutely right, I do have horrible aim with a gun," finished Holly with a small laugh, trying to keep the moment light.

"Holly, you be careful. This is going to be a fight to the death." Holly nodded, biting her lip, and turned and ran down the corridor.

Two floors down, Robert entered into another room, looking for Luke. He turned and came face to face with Cesar Faison.