Author's note: Picking up from the original 'Blindsided'. Please review!
It didn't take long for the Old Man to figure out why Junior was avoiding him. He knew exactly where Guerrero had been in his month long absence, and he knew Junior had taken it upon himself to secure Guerrero's release from the Mexican jail where the Old Man had been perfectly happy to let him rot indefinitely. Junior's loyalties needed to lie with him and him alone, and yet he had dropped everything to go to Guerrero's aid. This was a troubling development. Although Junior hadn't exactly disobeyed a direct order, he had knowingly acted against his wishes and that was dangerously close to outright rebellion. Junior wasn't a kid anymore and the Old Man knew that in a direct confrontation with the man he considered his son, there was no guarantee that Junior would fall back into line.
Joubert was only half-listening to Baptiste giving his report on the completion of his latest mission. He was more interested in watching the surveillance feed from Junior's apartment on his computer screen. Junior had managed to procure the services of a disgraced former doctor to tend to Guerrero's injuries, and from the man's demeanour he guessed that the prognosis may not be a good one.
He thought about what the implications of a blind and operationally worthless Guerrero might be, and how Junior would react to such a situation. Maybe having Guerrero permanently out of commission would work to his advantage, despite the loss of the man's considerable skills. If working alongside Guerrero were no longer an option he could make Junior work alone, perhaps even force him to sever all contact with everyone but himself. Junior didn't have a private life as it was but if Joubert isolated him completely from the other men in his employ, and the few other contacts that he permitted Junior to maintain, perhaps his control over the young assassin would become absolute.
Joubert knew that leaving Guerrero in a Mexican jail had only been a short term solution. One way or another Guerrero would have managed to extract himself from the situation, despite Joubert pulling a few strings with the Mexican authorities to make his detention as unpleasant as possible. It had been a test of Junior's loyalty to see how long it would take him to find Guerrero and what he would do when he did. Although he was disappointed that Junior had chosen to go behind his back to help him, he was not that surprised. But Guerrero's injuries, if they proved permanently debilitating, could be just the thing he needed to drive a wedge between the two men. Junior didn't know any other kind of life than the one Joubert had trained him for and if Guerrero was no longer able to be part of that world…
He realised that Baptiste had stopped talking and was looking at him somewhat impatiently, as if he were waiting for some kind of response.
"You eliminated your target?" he demanded. Baptiste tried to hide his disappointment that the Old Man hadn't heard a word he said. The assignment he'd just completed had proved to be considerably more complicated than had been anticipated and he'd hoped that his boss might acknowledge the extraordinary lengths to which he'd gone to complete his mission.
"Yes, and I…" he began but Joubert silenced Baptiste with a dismissive wave of his hand. It was a clear indication that he was unwilling to let him repeat the details of his mission. Baptiste clamped his mouth shut and tried to swallow his disappointment.
"Here," Joubert said, throwing an unmarked envelope across his desk. "A bonus. You may take a few days off but don't go too far. If I call, I want you back here in no more than six hours. Understood?"
Baptiste nodded and picked up the envelope, tucking it away in the pocket of his jacket. A bonus, although not unheard of, was a rarity for him but it wasn't the kind of reward he'd been hoping for. What he really craved was recognition from the Old Man, for even the smallest hint of approval that he showed Junior. He hesitated as the Old Man went back to watching his computer screen but he seemed oblivious to Baptiste's presence. Baptiste quietly backed out of the office, knowing that the envelope of cash in his pocket was the nearest thing to the Old Man's approval that he was likely to get.
Joubert barely even noticed him leave as he watched Junior tend to the abrasions on Guerrero's wrists on the screen in front of him. He wondered, not for the first time, whether he had made a mistake in keeping Guerrero alive. When he'd been incarcerated it would have been a simple matter to have him killed but destroying an asset as valuable as Guerrero was not a decision to be taken lightly and he'd hoped to have come up with an alternative solution to Junior's divided loyalties before Guerrero was released. Now he'd have to wait it out, to see what Junior did next, and that, he suspected, would depend on whether Guerrero recovered his vision. He felt confident that Junior would return to the only real home he had ever known, but how he broached the subject of his absence and Guerrero's rescue would tell him just how far from his control Junior had really drifted.