Thanks to: Jolinnn, Steinbock & Spencerblue for reviewing. Thanks guys - you make me think it's worth staying up late editing and adding to these chapters before I post them :)
WARNINGS:... eh, the usual. You've got this far, right? Violence. Lots of swearing. Bad guys don't say 'fudge'.
CHAPTER THREE
'COMPLICATION'
Definition: Something, often unexpected, which makes something more difficult
Upper North Corridor, The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
The Major had been cautious enough to pop his head around the corner of the corridor before the rest of him followed, but when he did, all hesitation left him in an instant.
"Just fucking shoot it! Dammit, Gary!"
"You literally just said shooting it would be re…"
"I don't give a fuck what I just said! Shoot the fucking door! I'm going to strangle the little bastard to death with my bare hands!"
"We have no idea who's on the other side of that door! And you're useless for shooting anything when you can't see!"
"Yeah we do – that fucking kid! I'll spray up the whole room if I have to!"
"Look, let's just find a bathroom and get that shit out of your eyes. They're trapped in there anyway, we can come back and…"
"And give them chance to escape? Fuck that!" the half-blinded man spat, his scrabbling hand finding the doorhandle and rattling it viciously. "I'm coming for you, you little bastard – you understand that? I'm going to go for the fucking set!"
"Then you'd better not leave me 'til last."
Even the man without bleach spray in his eyes startled at the sudden appearance of an angry giant in the corridor.
"Put the guns down or I put you down," The Major growled at him. The man – 'Gary' – raised his hands, dropping his weapon and kicking it to one side. He had a bad feeling the large man was going to kill him regardless, but not pissing him off went a long way towards avoiding, or at least postponing, that eventuality.
His partner had other ideas. He rushed forward in the direction of the voice and was met with a punishing kick to the gut. That would normally be quite enough to change the mindset of the average attacker, but this man was enraged. He sailed backwards from the impact of one giant, well-used boot, reaching for his gun mid-fall. The Major shot him immediately, just above the mark his kick had left on the man's shirt. He dropped to the ground, still reaching, spluttering obscenities as he went.
"Hello middle-man," the man rasped, blinking rapidly as he tried to focus on his opponent. "It is you, isn't it? How's your father?"
Myles stamped down heavily on his torso, feeling the man's ribs crack under his boot. Without response, he shot him between his damaged eyes. To the only witness, it seemed he had practically walked through the man like he was nothing.
"You'll stand there – put your hands on the wall. You won't move, unless you want to end up like him," he said curtly to the other man, stepping over the latest of his body-count as though it didn't exist. "If you're not bothered by that, please make your intentions known now; I haven't time to be pissing about and in all honesty you're a complication I could do without, understood?"
Gary nodded violently. He knew the truth when he saw it.
"Junior – it's me, you can open up," he said, rapping on the door.
It took rather a long time to open and once it did, he saw why.
"Bates! Where are the kids?" he demanded. "You – come in here where I can see you. Yes you! Move – get up against the wall and keep your hands where I can see them."
Bates shook his head, breathing rapidly and The Major pushed his compliant captive into the room and pulled his new friend up by the shoulders and sat him upright on the carpet.
"Speak to me – where are they?"
Bates gestured at the wall, exhausted by the effort of dragging himself to the door. "Basement. Dumbwaiter. Those two muppets were… trying to get… in… fuck this isn't fun…"
"Shit," The Major muttered. "For fuck's sake what part of 'stay put'…"
"Your boy did good," Bates told him with a bloody grin. "Sprayed the fucker in the eye with bleach. Smart lad."
"Yes he is," The Major said, hoping he was right. Dom would find somewhere safe to hide with the others until he could find them. It would all depend on Artemis doing as he was told by the boy. That was the trouble.
"What's the plan, boss?" Bates asked, breathing shakily.
"Well, you're staying put. But I got you some company," he said, pulling two thin straps of plastic from his pocket and gesturing his captive over. "Congratulations, complication - I've found you a purpose. I'm tying your hands, but you're to hold this pad against his bullet wound until a medical professional takes over. If he dies, I'll kill you – understood?"
The man nodded rapidly – there was a theme here with the consequences of disappointed this Butler. He remained in some sort of terrified awe as he offered his hands out for binding. It was like being in the presence of some large predator you'd only every before read about in books. This guy was one of the legendaries… And here he was on the wrong side of him. He gulped, seriously hoping the Simmons guard had more life left in him than he looked.
"Major – no, I don't want…." Bates protested.
"The time has passed for what you want, Bates. This man is going to agree to help you, or I'm going to kill him before I leave," The Major said, pulling the cable-ties tight around his subject's wrists. "I usually find any mercy I do have tends to go walkabout after a bereavement. Now what's your name?"
"Ah… G… Gary," stammered the lone enemy.
"Right then, Gary. Hand over the rest of your weaponry."
"My... weaponry?"
"Yes, come on - keep up! Guns, ammo, knives etc.!"
"I... I don't have anything else!"
"Bullshit," The Major barked, beginning to calculate if Bates could manage on his own.
"No! No seriously! Please! I'm just a grunt! I'm just a...!"
The Major slammed him up against the wall roughly and gave him a cursory pat-down. He didn't have time for this, but if he didn't do it then Bates might have no time left at all.
He wasn't sure if it unnerved him more that the man was telling the truth.
"How many of you are there?" he said, tying his hands tightly. "Who sent you?"
"Uh... twelve - well, ten because McPherson was shot and you just... ah..."
"Who sent you?" he repeated, ignoring the man's pointed look at the body on the floor in the corridor.
"I dunno, I swear! I'm just hired in for this job. The boss didn't say, I just..."
"Alright, enough. Stop talking," said Myles. He would just have to take the man's word for it. "Understand what I said about this pad? Hold it. Lots of pressure."
Gary didn't think he'd been under more 'pressure' in his life, but he nodded anyway.
"OK. Got it," he said.
"Good. Now Bates…"
"It's Will," Bates muttered. "My friends… they call me Will."
The Major placed a hand on the back of the younger man's head, supporting it for a moment so that he could look him in the eye without much effort.
"Well then Will, just you hold on. I'll send the first medics I see. Young Sophia needs a guard like you in amongst those other useless shites."
Will grinned, his eyes closing. "What do your pals call you?"
"I'd tell you, but you're not going to die," The Major said, letting his head rest gently on the wall.
Bates made a weak attempt at a laugh and held out his gun.
"Take this – you need it more than me."
Myles was glad he had offered. He was not about to leave an enemy in a room with an injured man and access to a gun – tied or not – but to take Bates's gun was quite an ask with an unknown number of hostiles about the place.
"Thanks," he said, taking it. Then to Gary; "You let him die; don't forget who I am. 'Cause you're going to be watching over your shoulder for me for the rest of your life."
Gary swallowed, increasing the pressure on the wad of bloody material.
"Get a few for me, sir," William Bates said, giving him an unsteady salute.
"Stop with the 'sir' bollocks, Will," The Major said with a smirk. "And don't you worry about that; you'd just better be around for me to tell you the number."
"That's the plan… Major," he said.
"Good man," The Major said with a nod and then, with one last glare of warning at Gary, he stepped over the body in the corridor and closed the door behind him.
Time to go find his boys.
The Basement, The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
"Do you think Bates will be alright?" Sophia said into the dark.
Neither of the boys answered her immediately, but after a long pause, Dom spoke slowly.
"I… I think so. He seems like a strong sort of guy. And my… my uncle's medi-pack is… it's really good for stopping bleeding. All he's got to do is hold on for a proper medic now."
"Which could be hours if this place is under siege," Artemis interrupted. "And now The Major has no idea where we are – honestly, Junior this was a stupid idea!"
"It's the best we could do. Who knows how many men were about to come through that door and shoot at us all?"
Sophia made small noise and Dom kicked himself for reminding her what was likely to happen to the man they'd left behind.
"I mean, probably not. But least we're safe down here now and…"
"Safe, indeed. The way I see it, we're stuck in some dusty basement and nobody has a clue we're even here!" Artemis grouched, hidden behind the rails of disused costumes.
"That's the best way," Dom said. "No-one can find us if they don't know where to look."
"And The Major? How will he find us?"
"He… he just will," Dom said, certainly.
"Oh grow up, Junior," Artemis hissed. "We're lucky not all to be dead with that silly trick of yours with the spray gun, why on earth didn't you just let Bates shoot the man?"
Because then the next guy would have killed Bates and then us anyway, Dom thought, but he said nothing.
"And then we could be back upstairs where The Major left us and…"
There was one, singular gunshot from above.
The children fell silent suddenly, waiting for a second. When there wasn't one, Sophia let out a stifled sob.
One shot meant one man killed. And there had been two trying to enter their original bolt hole. One shot meant that…
There was a shout from somewhere nearby and Artemis stayed silent, pressing back against the wall. Sophia grabbed his hand, her lip trembling. Dom's hands gripped nothing but his acquired handgun. The safety was still on, for now. There was movement from the stairwell and the door opened suddenly, light spilling into the dark room. He thumbed the safety off.
"Stop wasting your time pissing about down there – that was shot. Get upstairs – we need to see what it was!"
"Maybe Gary finally shot Forbes."
"Shut up – Forbes is the reason we only have one Butler to worry about."
"Also the reason the targets got away. Let's go find out what it was, anyway. This job goes anymore to shit we may as well top ourselves before the boss gets to us."
Boots thudded away up the stairs, the light dimming with the swinging shut of the door and Dom stood up quietly, replacing the safety on the gun.
"Where are you going now?" Artemis asked.
"Well… if they've already checked the room just above us, we'd be safer moving to there."
"Safer? You just said this was safe!"
"Are you sure?" Sophia interrupted, wiping her eyes.
Dom bit his lip. "I think it's our best bet. And to move now; while they've only just gone.
Artemis huffed. "Fine."
Truth be told, he was embarrassed. The much younger bodyguard-boy was handling the situation whereas in all reality it should be him, as the eldest, who was taking charge. Reluctantly he followed him to the door and as a trio they began to make their way very carefully up the stairs.
North Stairwell, The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin
The Major returned to the stairwell, recalculating. He had to make it to the basement, that much was certain. But how many hostiles he would meet along the way was less so. He had four guns and a couple of spare magazines, which should be more than enough for a man like him to take down a small army. But he was on his own. For the first time in his life; with sole responsibility for the safety of the Fowls. No father. No brother. Just him and the charges. Not to mention Dom…
He leapt one half-flight of stairs and then the other, pausing for a moment when he heard a door close below.
"Forbes? Is that you?"
The Major froze, concentrating on the footfalls coming up the stairs towards him. Two men. Presuming they were two trained men, his lack of response would just have put them on edge.
Distraction.
Use your surroundings.
The words of his father echoed through his mind as his eyes fell on a fire-extinguisher hooked to the wall.
That'll do.
"Back down! Back down!" Dom ordered frantically. "Quickly!"
A great whooshing noise followed by shouting, crashing and three gunshots chased them back into the basement, white powder falling through the service stairwell like snow.
It was almost too late to move and they barely made it through the door when two bodies immediately followed them in a tangle of limbs. The larger gained the upper hand, delivering a solid, gun-reinforced punch to the smaller man's skull, rendering him unconscious and with a massive concussion at best. He had set the fire extinguisher off and thrown it down onto the two men below, following it instantly to secure their disablement. That had gone just fine until the shooting had started and in the chaos of the whirling foam he had misjudged the dimensions of the landing and stepped back over the stairs, thankfully grabbing hold of one his enemies as he went, to break his fall.
His sharp eyes whipped to the children next and for a moment they were subject to a look he would never bestow on them on purpose. His face broke out of its taciturn mask when he recognised them instantly, but only slightly. This was no time for festivity, no matter how pleased he was to see them.
"Hello boys," he said, inclining his head to them. "Miss Simmons. I hoped I'd find you down here. If you'll excuse me for a moment."
And then he was gone, back through the door after the second man he had could across in the stairwell. There were two gunshots and the children stood frozen in the darkness for agonising seconds.
Dom closed his eyes, hoping that his uncle had remained indestructible. All the same, he raised the gun and held it aimed at the doorway.
"He'll have got them, Junior. Don't worry," Artemis said, touching his arm gently.
Dom nodded. "Just in case, right?"
"Right," the Fowl – who was more like a brother than a future employer – nodded with him and squeezed his bony fingers over the younger boy's freakishly muscular shoulder.
Seconds later, a large hand pushed open the door once more and they all breathed a little easier. It was remarkable really, Artemis thought, how the presence of just one other human being could put them at such ease without a single other change to their situation.
"OK, come with me," The Major said, as calmly as though he had just returned from running an errand. "There's a fire exit on the next floor – we're taking that to the Bentley."
"What about Bates?" Sophia asked as they ran up the stairs to keep up with him. "Is he… we heard a gunshot, is he…?"
She couldn't finish the sentence, but The Major knew anyway.
"Bates is fine. I fired the shot at someone else. There's a man helping your bodyguard as we speak," The Major assured her. Which wasn't technically a lie, although he neglected to mention the 'helper' was under threat of death to do so. The girl seemed somewhat assured and he ushered the three around the corner, shielding them from the sight of his latest unfortunate adversary with his own body. "Just down here at the end. That's our exit."
They raced past abandoned dressing rooms and, after The Major had pronounced it safe, out through the fire door and into the night. The cold air was sharp against their faces and Artemis pulled his suit jacket around himself.
"Do you think Mother and Father are safe?" he asked his bodyguard.
"They've cleared the area," The Major said, committing neither way. "That's a good sign, at least."
"You think?" Artemis asked, as his bodyguard made a quick check of their vehicle.
"Absolutely. Now come on, into the car."
The three children piled onto the back seat and Dom thought about how much he appreciated the feeling of safety the solid 'thunk' of the Bentley's bullet-proof doors closing behind him gave him.
His uncle climbing into the front seat only increased the feeling.
They were safe.
They were going home.
It had been quite possibly the worst and most dangerous night of his short life thus far, but they were out.
The Major pulled the big car out of the carpark, pausing only at an ambulance. He wound down the window and beckoned a paramedic.
"Do you need treatment, sir?" the man asked.
"No – but there's a man. Second floor – north side, in the caretaker's room. He's been shot. There's another with him. And some bodies."
"There's been fatalities?"
"Yes."
To his credit, the paramedic didn't look too perturbed at the news.
"OK, thank-you. Are – forgive me for asking again, but are you sure you don't need treatment, sir? You're bleeding."
The Major looked down at his shirt.
"Yes," he said, winding up the window. "But I'll live."
In the back of the car, Dom heard him, climbing forward to lean over the front seat.
"Badly?" he asked, concerned.
The Major grimaced. He had been rather hoping to keep that little fact up his sleeve, so to speak. At some point in the earlier melée, a single bullet had met some degree of its mark. It had grazed his inner arm, causing rather a lot of unnecessarily-dramatic bleeding, but was really more of an irk than an injury.
"Not badly, boy. Don't you worry about me," he assured him. "Now go strap yourself in the back. I don't trust these bastards to leave us alone just because we got out of the building."
His nephew still looked worried, but obediently returned to the rear of the vehicle.
They pulled smoothly out of the city and into the maze of rural Irish roads and for a few, long moments it seemed as though for once the old 'Butler paranoia' had been wrong.
Unfortunately, 'wrong' was not something a Butler made a habit of being.
They had made it barely more than a few miles, before the Blue Diamond swore under his breath, dipping the rear-view mirror down to shield his vision.
Headlights flared in his wingmirrors and he quickly began to calculate a new route to a suitable safehouse.
"Problems, Major?" Artemis asked.
"You have your seatbelts on?"
Artemis checked.
"Yes," he said, uncertainly.
"Then," The Major said, easing his boot down on the accelerator. "No problems."
That last little bit was actually the first part of this story that I got written down. It was my 'sit!flash' for this, as I call them haha
Let me know if I'm updating too fast and I'll string it out a bit for you guys to keep up.
Wolfy
ooo
O
03/12/18