Chapter 11: Nothing is Simple
The man pulled the trigger. A shot echoed through the woods.
Alex rolled, attempting to get out of the way of the speeding bullet. He cried out as he felt a burning pain spread across his body. When he finally got the pain under control, he realized that he was lying face down. Someone cursed in the background, and he felt himself being lifted up. Whoever it was was holding him over one arm, the other hand holding a gun to Alex's head.
Foggily, Alex heard the person say, "Drop your weapons or I shoot him."
"No," came another voice, coming from somewhere in front of them. "You won't shoot him. You need him."
Another shot rang out, and Alex once again cried out. Now it felt like his arm and leg were on fire.
"Who says I won't shoot him? I just did-twice. My employer won't care if he's damaged or not."
"Let him go. Either that or I blow your brains out. Do you know what type of weapon I hold in my hands? I see from the fear on your face that you do. Just think of what might happen if I accidently pulled the trigger."
Alex lifted his eyes. He had worked out that he was probably being held by the terrorist leader, and before him stood a CIA agent. How long had that guy been standing there?
"We can stand here all day and watch as he bleeds out for all I care. I do not care about your empty threats."
"Empty?" the CIA agent asked incredulous. "I have already carried this threat out on your partner. What makes you so sure I won't do it again?"
"Fine. I will drop him, but I will keep my gun trained on him. If you try to shoot me, just remember that I have an excellent reaction time, and will be able to pull the trigger before your weapon kills me."
"Deal. Now put him on the ground and leave."
Without warning, the support behind Alex disappeared, and he fell heavily to the ground. He grunted in pain as he landed on his injured arm.
In the distance, a voice could be heard, "I thought I told you to place him on the ground, not drop him like a sack of potatoes."
As the dark edges receded from Alex's vision, the voices became clearer and nearer.
"He's on the ground, what do you care? And now, I will make my leave."
Judging by the voice, Alex swiped his legs around and knocked the man down. One final hit to a pressure point had him knocked out.
Alex lay back on the ground, situated on his side, and pushed the pain away. He could feel the trickle of blood coming out of his leg and his arm, and knew that he'd have to staunch the flow.
A pair of hands gently rolled him onto his back.
"Hey. You okay? Listen, I've already called for back-up. They should be here in a few minutes. Just hang tight, and we'll get someone to look at those bullet wounds. Then, there's someone who would like to meet you," the CIA agent told Alex.
Alex filed away the information he was given.
"You really shouldn't be so trusting. I can't have you ruining my plans, now can I?" Alex asked, right before hitting one of the man's pressure points and effectively knocking him out.
Alex rolled the man off of his body and stood up, assessing the damage that the bullets had done to his body. He was surprised to find that although he had been hit on his upper arm and upper leg, the bullets had all but missed him. On millimeter farther away, and they would have completely missed. The bullets had only grazed his skin, leaving a thin line bleeding, but nothing serious. He quickly ripped off two pieces of his shirt and tied them around the wounds before taking off into the woods.
(PAGE BREAK! NORMALLY THIS WOULD BE A NEW CHAPTER, BUT I FEEL THAT YOU GUYS DESERVE TO KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING TO BEN WHILE ALL OF THIS IS TAKING PLACE!)
Ben sat quietly for the entire trip. He had no clue who this Lewinsky character was, but from the way he had been introduced Ben got the vibe that no one messed with him.
Somewhere along the journey (Ben didn't know how far they were taking him, so he couldn't judge whether it was near the end or the beginning), George got a phone call.
"George Scott."
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"I see. And what was there when you got there?"
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"And no sign of anyone else?"
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"Blood…interesting. Is Harrison okay?"
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"That's good. Keep me updated. I'll let Lewinsky take over my job and come there."
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"Very good." And George snapped his phone closed.
"What was that about?" Lewinsky asked.
George stared at Ben for a long time, studying him.
"Okay. I'm sure it's no breach of security for this guy to hear it, and you'll need to hear this information, Lewinsky," George replied, indicating at Ben.
"Good. So what's going on?" Lewinsky prompted.
"Well, it seems that this guy's partner somehow managed to evade all of our men. Then, either Harrison managed to follow him or found him by accident in the middle of the park's woods. From what we can tell from the scene, the partner got attacked by a group of guys. As it turns out, they're from a terrorist organization that recently popped up. A few minutes ago Harrison called for back-up but did not explain the situation. Our guys got there and this was what they pieced together from the clues."
"From the clues? What happened to Harrison?" Lewinsky asked, slightly worried.
"Well, when the back-up got there, they found a very interesting scene. A group of 10 guys all lying on the ground unmoving. 9 of them were unconscious. One of them was dead, and judging by the bullet, he was shot by Harrison. They were all dressed the same-in black. Only one of their weapons was fired, and it was fired twice. The interesting thing is that no one there had any bullet wounds-save the one shot by Harrison."
"How odd. Did the guy miss his mark?"
"It doesn't seem that way. Harrison was found nearby the guy who owned the gun that had been fired, unconscious. He didn't have any marks on him, and it seems someone knocked him out by hitting a pressure point. Right next to where Harrison was found, the grass was matted down, and there were two small pools of blood. But no sign of anyone else. To be honest, we don't even know if the partner was there. But there was definitely someone else there-not just because of the blood. Harrison was unmarked, but the other guys looked as though they had been through some sort of fight," George sighed. "I hate all of this uncertainty. This was supposed to be simple. Grab the guy from the photo, and his partner. Bring them to HQ. Done. Cut and dry mission."
"Sorry about that," Ben interjected. "But when dealing with my partner, you'll learn that nothing is as simple as it seems at first."
Neither showed any signs of even hearing Ben speak.
"And then there's you. The guy from the photo that seems to know more than is plausible. What's your name?" George asked.
Ben studied him before answering, "They didn't tell you?"
"In our industry, appearance is more important than names. They just showed us a photo. Find first, then start asking questions."
Ben nodded at this answer, "Now here's the thing. Do you want to know the name on my passport, the name of the guy that I'm pretending to be, or the name on my birth certificate?"
"Let's just start with something easy. We don't need to go into the complex information yet. The name on your birth certificate."
"Ben Daniels. You know, it's probably a good thing that you guys have me and my partner is off who knows where vs. the other way around, because he would've had a much more complicated answer," Ben replied with a wry smile.
"How so?" Lewinsky asked, curious.
"When he shows up, you can ask him. If he tells you, then you can know, but if he doesn't, then sorry. Right now he's in control of this entire situation, and I would hate to get on his bad side for messing things up."
"You're sure he's going to show up?" George Scott wondered.
"Of course. There's really no reason for you guys to be out looking for him. He'll just disappear into thin air and then show up when you least expect it."
"You talk as though from experience."
"I do," Ben replied, thinking of how he had thought Alex was dead only to have him pop up two years later. "If he doesn't show his face by this time tomorrow, then that means that something terribly wrong has happened and he is most likely dead."