"Where's the fox?" the man asked again, only less politely and with more waving of his gun.
"Did you see her leave the car?" he answered frantically, "because I didn't. I don't know how she does it."
"Does what?" Keira spat.
"Disappear. It's not the first time… she just… disappears."
"Do you think this is some kind of joke?" she asked as she pushed the two operatives out of the way. "Where's she hiding?"
"Probably somewhere she thinks Ixis won't be able to find her…"
"Why are you two just standing there," the woman yelled at her two compatriots, "check the trunk like he said!"
Thrusting her head in the open window the woman began to peer around as if she might uncover what the others had not. He could smell the stink of cigarettes on her breath as her nostrils flared in frustration.
"Do you want me to help you look for her?" Marcus asked as he reached to unbuckle his own seatbelt.
Why they hadn't told him to shut the car off was beyond him. Then again, they weren't normal coppers accustomed to making traffic stops. And while the overgrown Dominion agent had enough sense to keep his body parts outside of the car, it appeared that Naugus' wife did not.
"No, I've had about enough of your help tonight," she spat.
"That's what I figured," Marcus said as he looped the belt around her neck and took his foot of the brake.
The hill they were parked at the top of wasn't that steep, but the car would still pick up more than enough speed by the time they reached the bottom.
At first there was a struggle as she tried to pull her head free, but Marcus held her nice close so she would be able to hear what he said next.
"Tell them to back off."
The two agents that had been sifting through his trunk were quick to realize something was amiss when the car began to roll.
Frantically the woman waved them off, "just stay there," she screamed.
"Good," he continued, "now lets you and I take a little stroll."
"Are you trying to kill me?" she began to plead as she was forced into a jog to keep up. "Ixis will kill you for this."
"One foot, two foot," he felt the need to reply. "You were going to kill me, weren't you? You were going to kill both of us. A little delay of the inevitable won't hurt anyone but you."
There was no response.
"So now that I have your attention, here's my proposition."
"Ohh you clever little boy," Keira complained. "Maybe I should have believed Ixis when he was singing your praises."
"You and me, we don't cross paths again. Or you and Fiona for that matter. Leave her out of this. I don't know what your game is, but I know full well you don't want your husband knowing about any of this."
"What do I get out of this little agreement of ours?"
"I let you go," Marcus motioned to the approaching increase in steepness in the street.
"You wouldn't," she replied, the clack of her heels approaching a run.
"You're smart," he smiled coyly back at her. "You're a Silvano after all. You'll figure out how to cope with a husband that knows you're two-timing him."
"You think he doesn't already know?"
"What I think isn't important," he shrugged. "What's important is how quickly you can run in those heels."
The woman snarled back at him, "Let me go or I'll…"
"You'll what? My guess is you made some kind of deal that included handing us over to Kintobor. That's the part Ixis doesn't know about, right? We turn up dead or missing?"
There was silence again.
"You play both sides, that's fine. Perhaps your husband even asked you to. But don't expect me to sit here and do nothing while my life is on the line. Find another way or start running faster."
The speedometer read 10 miles per hour, and he could feel the weight of the car pulling them forward.
"Fine!" she yelled. "Run home to your master and let him know everything. We'll see who he believes, his pet or his wife."
"Now that's a chance I'm willing to take," Marcus replied as he released the seat belt.
He watched as Keira tumbled to ground in his rear-view mirror. He wasted no time putting space between him and the two agents rushing to help her up.
"Fiona would have been proud," he whispered to himself as he sped into the setting sun.
Now I just have to tell Ixis…
"How did everything go?" Marcus childishly mimicked the man's accent.
"Oh it went super dandy. Turns out your wife is best friends with the men who tried to kill you. Oh and by the way the only way I was able to escape with my life was by threatening to strangle her."
Yup, that should go over well.
Then there was the matter of his friend. In all the commotion he had forgotten about Fiona. The sting of her words hadn't been given a chance to settle in.
"She just left me…" Marcus wanted to cry, but his adrenaline was still flowing.
Tearing across town, he retreated to the only person he knew could help him.
Or kill me.
His brakes screeched to a halt outside Ixis' flat, promptly attracting the attention of the impossibly big Igor. Seeing him from inside the car had always skewed his perspective. Meeting his gaze while standing toe to toe with him was twice as scary.
"What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to him, now!"
"That's not how this works."
Marcus pushed his way past the man, making his way for Naugus' front door.
In a fraction of a second he felt a pull at his shirt collar that sent him airborne and into the middle of the road. Picking himself up, no less determined, Marcus marched forward again.
"Don't press your luck," the man grumbled. "I won't be as kind the second time.
"I need to talk to him!" he repeated himself. "He needs to hear this, now!"
"Your little squabbles can wait until tomorrow morning."
"It's about his wife," he screamed in an exasperated tone.
The ogre of a man paused, mulling this new information over, "Perhaps you should have led with that?"
"What's going on out here?" a familiar accent shouted from the front porch.
Marcus and Igor spent a full ten seconds shouting over each other as Ixis looked on, his brow furrowing as his frustration grew.
"Enough! Marcus, inside, now! Igor, don't go far."
With trepidation, the kid hesitated as he climbed the one and only step into Ixis' private home. A dull light emanated from the Man's study.
"Sit," Naugus said with ample irritation.
Marcus lowered himself into the chair opposite the crime lord's desk.
"I assume that this must be so important it was worth having a few bones broken? Igore doesn't like surprise visitors. And let me let you in on a little secret, neither do I."
"It's your wife."
"What about her? You dropped her off where I asked, right?"
"Yes!" Marcus nearly yelled.
"Then what's wrong?"
"I think she's working for Julian."
The man sighed, "anything else?"
"A-a-anything else?"
"Yes, is there anything else?"
"I just thought you would want to know."
"What makes you think I didn't?"
"I – she, she was going to kill us."
Ixis raised an eyebrow as he leaned back into his chair.
"Go on."
"The dominion agents that have been tying to kill you, she knows them. I think she made some kind of deal to hand Fiona and I over to Julian or to them, I don't know."
"That's quite an accusation."
"I know…"
"And Fiona? Where is she? What does she have to say about all of this."
"She's scared of you. Scared that she failed you."
"And you, are you scared?"
"Yes."
"Good, you should be, but not of me."
"What?"
"How are you alive?" Ixis asked, his tone as much an accusation as a question.
"W-what do you mean?" he hesitated.
"When my wife puts someone in her sights, she doesn't miss unless she means to. So I'll ask again, how are you alive?"
"I made her let me go."
The man began to chuckle, "I find that hard to believe. No one makes her do anything, including me."
"You taught me a thing or two on how to persuade others, sir."
The man smiled gently, "If you harmed so much as a hair on her head..."
"Her head should be fine… mostly, her knees on the other hand might be a little scraped."
"And now you're here to beg for my forgiveness?"
"I just thought you would want to know…"
Steepling his fingers, Naugus leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk, "If I had known she was eyeing you two I would have sent someone else."
"I'm sorry?"
"My wife," he began before trailing off, seemingly lost in thought.
"Keira," Marcus prompted him to continue.
"How did you…? Oh, never mind. Yes, Keira's always had an independent streak. Our efforts rarely step on each other's toes. We each pull strings behind the other's back. It creates some plausible deniability and let's us each run free with our own ambitions where it suits us."
"So you knew she was meeting with Kintobor's people?"
"Of course. However, I thought I had made it quite clear to her that you two were not to be treated as expendable. Obviously she has her eyes on something big if she means to cross me like this."
"I- I'm sorry, sir."
"Hmm, what for?"
"I didn't mean to complicate anything."
Ixis chuckled for a moment, but said nothing.
"It must not be easy," he continued lightly, "being married to a Silvano that is."
The grey-haired man nodded in agreement, "love is a strange thing."
Marcus nearly gasped and was certain his expression gave him away.
"Me love someone, how is that possible?" the man laughed again, "I see that look on your face. We share an ambition, a drive that's hard to describe. We're both willing to do anything to accomplish our life's work. Spend long enough with someone like that, and you don't even need to hear them say it, you just learn to trust decisions they make."
"So, you're okay with her trying to kill us?"
"She tried," the man shrugged. "You're still here, aren't you?"
All is fair in love and war…
"Won't she try again?"
"Maybe? Depends on if she still needs you or not. You might have just been simplest solution at the time."
He isn't exactly helping me feel any better.
"And Fiona?"
"Don't worry about her, she's the last person I would worry about."
"I know…" Marcus said as he got up to leave. "I meant you'll talk to her right? Tell her everything is okay between you two? I'm worried about her."
"It's not the first time she's run away. She'll come back, she always does."
As he reached for the for the front door, Ixis shouted after him, "don't be late tomorrow, I've got a lot of work to take care of."