Solomon stood by the couch and whispered, "Henry, wake up!"
Henry or Jack Harding as he was locally known wouldn't wake up, so he pulled the sheet from his face when suddenly a fist bursting through the air and hit his jaw.
"Jesus Christ!" said Solomon as he landed on his back, Henry then grabbed a bottle that was nearby and went to attack him when a look of recognition crossed his face.
"Skinner?"
"Fuck yeah it's Skinner!" yelled Solomon or Skinner as he was actually named, while he nursed his jaw.
"I'm so sorry, Skinner. I though you were an Assassin!"
"Assassins don't wake up their Target's, Jekyll.. Bloody Hell!"
Jekyll helped Skinner up, so he would get the chance to see him properly, he was as thin and pale as he was for as long as he knew him, only a thick beard was new to him.
"Do you need some Ice?"
"Nah, I'm good."
Skinner and Jekyll locked eyes for a moment, and then burst in a chuckle as they pulled each other in an embrace.
"Henry Boy! It's been Six-Bleeding-Years!" said Skinner as he slapped Jekyll between the shoulders.
"Four, Actually. How have you been?"
"Eh, Surviving."
"When you went missing for all this time I though the League had finally rubbed you off."
"They wish, I had been moving a lot, gathering information about the old firm. I have good news by the way."
"You'll tell me about it later."
"By the way, what had gone with our plan? Our agreement was that we would pick aliases with initials matching our actual names, why did you switch them?"
"Well, there aren't many first names that start with H, there's just Henry, Harold, Hunter, Harry, Harrison, Hal, Horace. So I figured I'd switch the initials to throw the League off. 'Cause J has a much wider range, like John, Jack, James, Jake, Jacob, Jason, Jess, Joshua, Jamal, Jedediah, Judas, Jude and so on. What do you go by these days?"
"Rupert Solomon."
"I like it, sounds suave and legitimate."
"Why, think you, Sir!" said Skinner as he tipped an invisible hat jokingly, "Now where do you keep your spirits?"
"In the cupboard. Better yet, let's go down, we'll have a pint!" said Jekyll as he put on his jacket.
"Or Twelve?"
"Oh, you've heard about, didn't you?"
-------------------------------------
"Rick, one more."
Rick the bartender filled Jekyll and Skinner's pint mugs with bear and served them back, as they were the only ones still there at a late hour.
"Not that I'm not enjoying this visit, but what brings you here, mate?"
"I'm here to see a man about some papers." said Skinner as he drank from his pint.
"Papers? What papers?"
Skinner looked hesitant.
"It has everything to do with the league."
"Oh, not this again!"
"Listen, Henry..."
"No one hates the League more than I do, Sk- Solomon. But at some point a man has to know when he's been beaten, and just walk away."
"It's different this time."
"How? Has the League gone weak? Do we now have an army to battle theirs?"
"Just listen, a few months ago a League Operative known as James Bond broke away and took several important dossiers with him.."
"Bond? Is he-?
"Campion Bond's Grandson, yes. For months he hid away but they put a brutal stop to him yesterday. And recovered the dossiers."
"Well, if he has a little of old Bloody Campion then he deserved his end."
"What if I told you I'm about to get my hands on copies of said Dossiers?"
"How?"
"Bond managed to give a copy to another League Deserter."
"Sounds like a sting cooked up by the League to bring down any opposition. You'll be dead before you get within twenty yards of this Deserter."
"That's why I need your help; you can stop all of them if things go to hell. I need you to watch me back."
"Last Call." said Rick as he filled Jekyll and Skinner's half-empty pints.
"I had been suppressing my demons for a very long time, I'm not about to do it knowing this to be a set-up. You should know better."
"Old habits die hard, old son. I am a thief by profession, and moreover I am a thrill seeker, and when I find an opportunity where I can enter a perilous situation with the prospect of certain painful death, only because there is a miniscule chance of me emerging triumphant, and screw over my adversaries royally; when that happens, all I can do is grin like an idiot and do it."
Jekyll didn't seem to buy any of that, because he knew there was more to it, there was a common motive that drove them to do something stupid and impossible.
"And besides all that, I'm going to do it for Becky, and Mina, and Tom, and Nemo, and Quatermain and every crewman who died for a country that sacrificed them in vain."
"Mina." mused Jekyll as he drifted in memory to a brief time in the past, when there was no loneliness, nor sadness, nor despair and all was right in the world for him.
"Well, I assume two gits can die just as easily as one git." said Jekyll as he threw back a colossal dose of bear.
"That's the spirit, Jack Harding."
"We'll see this to the end, Rupert Solomon."
-------------------------------------
Cairo, Egypt
The tall man of his early forties hailed a cab and adjusted the false beard as it came to a stop.
"Where to, Sir?" asked the driver in Arabic as the tall man took his place in the back seat.
"North," said the man in a foreign accented Arabic, "As far as you can take me."
-------------------------------------
Jekyll and Skinner drove through the streets of Dublin on their way to meet their fellow Ex-Leaguer or a Shadow as deserting agents were known to the league.
"You know the feeling in your gut that you get when you realize that what you are about to do is something stupid?" asked Jekyll as he sat at the wheel.
"Panic?"
"Yeah, I'm having one of those right now."
"I'm sure it will subside once the full blown Hysteria strikes."
"Here's for hoping."
They were silent for a short while.
"So, who is this contact? What's his name and specialty?"
"He goes by the code name: Fat Bastard."
"Fat Bastard?"
"Yeah, he's a former Agent with the Ministry of Defense, turned Rogue in the late sixties after leaving the League. He is as his codename suggests, morbidly obese, and quite insane I might add, they say he eats babies or something."
"Sixties? He must be in his seventies!"
"No, he traveled to the year 2002 in 1972, which makes him in his forties. Look, he's an odd bloke all around, so let's just shut up and listen to what he has to say then forget we ever met him."
"Works for me."
Jekyll pulled up as they reached their destination; a restaurant.
It wasn't difficult to know who the Fat Bastard was, because there was a very massive man sitting at a table eating away at several large plates filled with Ribs, Ham and Chicken with sides of salad and garlic bread, the mere sight of him was utterly mesmerizing in the foulest way imaginable. And for moments, Skinner and Jekyll forgot about the possibility that this was a trap.
"Fat Bastard?" asked Skinner.
"That's me, Sonny Jim." said the man with a thick Scottish brogue, "Sit down, lads. Have a little nibble, the veil is excellent here."
"No, thanks."
"More for me then." said Fat Bastard then took a massive bite from a well roasted chicken, "You haven't introduced yourselves yet."
"Oh, this is Jack Harding and I am Rupert Solomon."
"Those are your aliases, aren't they? No probs, I'm not really Fat Bastard either."
"Rrrright." said Jekyll.
"So, what do you have for us?"
"Bond didn't steal a lot, and he didn't give me copies of everything he stole. A bunch of bits and pieces really, former Agents, current roaster of Agents of all three Departments. And some geographic Intelligence, regarding the location of the All Seeing Eye."
"What's the All Seeing Eye?" asked Jekyll.
"I'll explain latter." said Skinner.
"Alright, how much do you want?"
"Well, something like this only comes around once in a century, literally. So there is no price I can put that'll do it justice. So, I'm forced to ask for something priceless."
"Like what?"
"Revenge." said the Bastard and then belched as he finished with his massive meal.
"What?" asked Skinner.
"I want in."
There was a long pause.
"Come again?"
"You were in the League once, weren't you? You hate their guts and so do I."
"Why?"
"I've got me moral reasons; let's just say I wasn't too keen on the role the League played in Vietnam. And when I deserted, I had to have my appearance changed, so I went to a surgeon and asked for a new face, and he gave me that. The tit also screwed with some nerves that have caused me to become very ravenous, hence my current condition. I used to be a real sexy beast, now I'm a fat sexy beast!"
"I'm afraid that's not an option." said Skinner.
"That's not an option, eh?" said the Bastard with a grin, then burst out laughing, "Well think 'bout it, will you, Sonny Jim? I'll be in touch." he said as he got up with ease not fitting with his colossal physique.
"But don't think for too long, or I'll use this dossier to wrap me Ham Sandwiches." he continued, waving a dossier in his hands.
"I think he's for real." said Jekyll as he and Skinner sat in his apartment, discussing their plans.
"How do you figure that?"
"I studied human nature of good and evil for a long time before I created my formula. I know evil when I see it, Fat Bastard may be a Fat Bastard, but he's not about to stab us in the back. Whatever he has in that dossier of his is for real."
Skinner was silent as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Are we going to fight fire with fire?" asked Jekyll suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"What was your plan, after getting the dossier? After you knew who was running the League, who was doing what and to whom, what were you going to do?"
Skinner paused for a minute or so, thinking what was it and picking his words.
"I'm not sure; I had a vision of me and you standing above a pile of rubble, with every League Agent no more a threat. And Shadows like Fat Bastard stepping into the light."
"And you figured we'd do this alone?"
"I see your point."
"What we have to do, Skinner, Is match the League in every department; we have to create something of an Anti-League."
"I follow; But the League has all the resources."
"First and foremost, we agree to Fat Bastard's offer. We will need several assets, have you heard the rumor about Gray being in charge?"
"Yes."
"In that case we'll need someone to match him, someone aggressive and invincible; we'll also need other recruits, such as a Sniper, a computer hacker. We'll also need weapons and equipment, and hence we'll need lots of Money."
"Money is not a problem." said Skinner.
"How so?"
"I invested in a few little companies several years ago and they have flourished."
"What companies?"
"You know, Microsoft, Apple Computers, Fed-Ex, AT&T, HSBC..." recited Skinner with a wide grin.
"Bloody Hell! You're a millionaire you little licker!"
Skinner's smile disappeared as he asked the million dollar question,
"But, who would join?"
"The ones the League can't have. Shadows, those who were damaged by the League, everyone with a score to settle."
Skinner looked at his longtime friend long and hard, then smiled and picked up his phone, dialed a number and waited till the other end picked up.
"Fat Bastard? You're in. Get our Dossier and meet us at the O'Neil pub in downtown."
Skinner hung up the phone.
"And then, there were three."
R&R.