Changing the story's rating just to be on the safe side. Prepare for some fight scenes!
Maddy attempts to clear her head of the nauseating guilt she's currently burdened with. It is undeniably her fault that there is a target on the head of everyone she loves but ruminating on that fact won't change it. And now is not the time to be distracted in any way.
The group walks on, coming to a small, narrow intersection between buildings that connects the alleys to the streets. Marks slows his pace. "What is it?" Maddy looks up at him, sensing a shift in his demeanor.
His eyes dart around. "There's dumpster where you can scrummage for food scraps, and that fire escape could provide some shelter from rain," he said randomly.
"And?"
"And there are no vagrants around."
As if on cue, Timothy Curran flanked by heavily armed soldiers turns the corner. Mark and Maddy whip their heads around to find Josh and Ken moving quickly to get close to them as more officers filling in to block their exits. The only option is the dead-end nook housing the dilapidated fire escape and dumpster, and despite knowing that they are cornering themselves in, Ken and Mark rapidly usher them all to duck for shelter. They are sitting ducks for sure, but they haven't been fired upon, yet which is the only good news. Good being relative of course.
Curran yells to them, "Let's not make it harder than it has to be! Come out now, guys."
"Promise you'll let my family go!" Maddy yells in return despite Mark's disapproving look. He snugly holds her in place so she can't do anything destructively selfless.
Curran only laughs. "To negotiate, sweetie, you need to have something desirable. From where I'm standing, I'm holding all the cards."
"Ironic given your gambling problem," Maddy retorts, and Curran's laughter ceases immediately.
"That's it, bitch …" his voice nears them, meaning he is walking toward the huddled kids. With a nod, Curran and Mark both jump up and fire. Despite not having aimed at anyone in particular, they succeed in at least startling Curran and his crew who fall back slightly. Curran remains on the opposing side of the dumpster, weapon drawn.
A puddle of water on the cracked concrete near one of the buildings reflects the scene, and while Mark notices, Curran is too busy attempting to peer around the corner to see. The two trade a few shots that do nothing but keep the other cornered. "How did you find us?" Marks asks.
"Find you?" Curran laughs humorlessly. "You were never lost. We've kept tabs on you since the apartment to hear your meet-up point with the doc and Reilly. You are all really bad at obeying orders, you know."
They hadn't been stupid enough to say the location aloud and destroyed the communicators immediately. But Curran doesn't have to spell out what that means. He still needs the information, which means he needs one of the alive to get it.
"We won't tell you shit!" Josh yells.
"I don't know, from what I've heard around that school Madelyn can be very accommodating."
"You can go to hell!" Maddy yells. "Do whatever you want to me, but we both know you need me alive and I'll die before talking." She wonders when none of them show up if her mother will still go through the portal alone. It would be wildly out of character, but Maddy deeply hopes she does. She hopes Dad has escaped Golad and that he and Mom will be start a new life together in paradise.
"Then answer me this," Curran says without hesitation. "Will you let Zoe? Sweet … innocent … little Zoe … will you let her die before you talk?"
Maddy's eyes fill with tears as she looks over at Josh holding Zoe in the corner. Mark, having enough of Curran's threats, rounds the corner, gun raised. He immediately takes out two soldiers stationed at the corners of other buildings before coming face to face with Curran. Mark hits him in the arm but Curran manages to unarm him before he has another shot. The two scuffle, both weapons scattered elsewhere on the asphalt.
Maddy's back is against the dumpster, eyes squeezed shut at the sounds of traded blows. She looks up to find movement on the roof. "Ken!" And the security guard turns around, firing a shot that takes out the sniper who was still getting into position.
"Let's see if that fire escape can still hold weight," Ken tells Maddy. "We're not walking out of here on the ground – there's too many of them." Ken and Josh agree to cover the girls as they test out the exit option.
There is currently no gunfire, since Curran told the others to hold back. He was angry that Mark momentarily got the upper hand on him, and anger plus ego is a deadly combination.
Curran and Mark continue to duke it out, throwing punches and tackling one another. Curran succeeds in leading him away from the others, more out of taunt than strategic planning. "Come on!" he yells. "Try again. Go save your girl, play knight in shining armor." Mark charges him but Curran manages to flip him onto his back. Mark stays down, leading Curran to drop his guard for a moment, but as soon as Mark gets his breath back, he's swinging full force.
"Sir!" someone yells, trying to get Curran's attention as he repeatedly knees Mark while holding him against a wall. "Curran, they're trying to climb up the fire escape. We need your command."
"Shut," Curran grunts as he punches the other man. "The Hell." Mark twists Curran's wrist and pushes him away right before railing a solid fist again his jaw. "Up!" Curran tears off his rebreather to spit out a mouthful of blood. "Shoot any of them but the older girl, I'll be there in a minute," he huffs. "Actually …"
Curran turns and take the gun from the inquisitive solider. Mark's entire body throbs as he prepares to throw himself at Curran to disarm him again, but he's weak at this point and Curran manages to sidestep him with a dark chuckle, sending Mark rolling to the ground himself. He slowly staggers to his feet as Curran stands over him, apparently giving him the curtesy of a face to face execution.
They make eye contact.
"I've always wanted to meet you," Curran says calculatedly, "because the woman in your life … Emily. Maddy. Such firecrackers. But what kind of man isn't there to protect them from the evils of this world?"
Mark's glare hardens, forcing himself to become deaf to the scathing words. He knows what a real man is, and it isn't Curran, it isn't his dad. He's only had examples of who not to be in life, and he's surely succeeded in not resembling them at all. The comment about wanting to meet him is what doesn't add up.
"You're the kind of man who thinks he is protecting his family," Curran continues, "When actually you're woefully ineffective. That's somehow worse. So, when I was doing surveillance for mind numbing hours on end, I was thinking about you, and this idea came to me. Let's give him a taste of power, the world's simplest job, and then tear him apart piece by piece by destroying it and everyone he loves."
Mark freezes.
"How else would you have gotten this job, Markus? You were never meant to easily get Madelyn Shannon to Hope Plaza because one way or another, my pet project has been planning on pulling one over on you. And then having Emily all to myself," Curran tilts his head. "I thought embarrassing the hell out of your in front the Shannons by bringing up your previous arrest then subsequently barring you from supporting you family again would be enough, but you went and made it so much easier on me! You beat some kids up at a school for god sake. You stuck your neck our and asked too many questions. But perhaps most pathetic, you seemed like you actually cared. So now we're left with one question – with both women's lives in peril who does the boy pretending to be a knight save?"
Mark is fuming. Every screwed-up thing that has happened over the last three weeks has been become some psycho his sister does illegal business with has it out for him. Curran has been behind all of it, the reason Mark and Maddy's lives have become so intertwined. Anyone could have been assigned this security mission, but no. It was Mark. Because Timothy Curran is a sadistic criminal with an inferiority complex who had gotten himself in bed with Recruitment.
"You can't kill Maddy if you don't want your bosses to kill you," Mark retorts. "And if there's one thing you value it's your own miserable life. And you will never even set eyes on Emily again."
Curran rolls his eyes. "Don't be so naïve, Mark. I'm not talking about murder. I'm talking about what you didn't have the guts to do with Maddy yourself. Something way more fun that the quick release of death."
Mark's eyes widen, refusing to let his mind even consider Curran's implications. He'll save that rage for when he has him in his grasp and gets to finally end him.
Curran raises the sidearm he took from the soldier. "Don't worry," he says. "You're not worth a bullet right now. Then you wouldn't get to see the show later on, yeah?" And with a wink, he whips the gun across Mark's head so quickly the well-built guard drops like a stone.