Deposited on two chairs, still hooded and restrained, they were left in utter silence, except for the occasional sound of a passing car in the distance...and his own thumping heartbeat. He desperately wanted to hold her hand, or even just look at her to try and convey some semblance of reassurance, but it was impossible; the cuffs were too tight. So he settled for the only thing he could do, something he had always found difficult, voicing his inner feelings.
"Forgive me for endangering your life, Julia. I should have never confided any of this to you."
More tenderly than usual, "No, I'm glad you did, Will. It means a lot to me that you trust me so much."
Wisely he didn't say anything about riffling through her things before contacting her about The Black Hand.
"Then I hope you will believe me now when I say that my heart belongs to you, and you alone."
A short silence. "Yeah I think I do. As for me well, I think you've always known how I felt about you. I'm not exactly what you call subtle when it comes to my attractions. We don't all live in our heads like the great and terrible Mr. Gadget."
Murdoch imagined he heard the smirk that accompanied the last line and it lifted his spirits slightly.
"Well, now that we've wasted precious time having a heartfelt chat, how's about we figure out our next move before the goon squad comes back?"
"All right. What do you suggest, Julia?"
"Okay, here's what I was thinking..."
Not long after they discussed their plans for escape, he heard a door open and close and several pairs of footsteps making their way over to them, as well as various different colognes. Abruptly the black bags were removed and tossed onto the ground. It was dimly lit in this apparently abandoned place, with only the moon as illuminator. Even so, Murdoch's eyes took a moment to adjust, and when they did, both Julia and Murdoch exclaimed, "Henry?!"
The clerk for their residence observed them calmly and said, "Gavin, actually."
On either side of the impeccably dressed man, were two others with familiar looking assault rifles. For once the weapons were not pointed at them, but Murdoch had no doubt that the men would use them if needs be.
Julia scowled at Henry. "Whatever the hell you call yourself, I knew there was a reason I never liked you. No one is that obsequious and slimy. I should have known you were garbage the moment I laid eyes on you."
"Now, now," said Henry, with a waggle of a finger, as if Julia were a naughty child, "there's no need for name calling detective. Such behaviour never got anyone anywhere in life. Now then," he continued, clasping his gloved hands together, "shall we begin?"
Murdoch and Julia shared a look but neither said anything to Henry's query.
"I'm sure you know why you are here. You've gotten your hands stuck in the proverbial cookie jar, taking things that don't belong to you without permission."
"That's a laugh," Julia said with warmth. "You're the biggest thieves I've ever heard of."
Henry looked directly at her and said, "Please do not interrupt me again, detective. I can't abide such rudeness."
"What are you going to do, kill me?" she responded defiantly.
Henry smiled for the first time. "As I was saying, you've gotten yourselves into a bit of a pickle and it's my job to determine what is to be done with you." He reached into his inside breast pocket and pulled out the slim external hard drive Julia had dumped the evidence onto. "Even if I destroy this right now, there is no guarantee you do not have a backup somewhere else. So before we proceed any further, I must know...is there?"
"Like we'd ever tell you something like that!"
"It's in your best interests to tell me, detective, before something unpleasant happens to you."
"Screw you."
Henry gestured to one of the men beside him. The man easily lifted Julia to her feet and began frog marching her away. This was not part of any scenario they had hastily imagined!
"Where are you taking her?" Murdoch shouted, struggling against his restraints, doing his darndest to stand up with his hands tied behind his back but failing. "Take me instead!" He had a horrible feeling that he would never see her again if they made it through that door. "Stop! I'll tell you what you want to know!"
"No, Will! Don't! I can handle whatever they throw at me!"
Henry signalled to the goon and they stopped just outside the door. "Go on, Mr. Murdoch, I'm listening."
"The original data is still at Murdoch's Mysteries."
"Where exactly? It's a big place."
"In my office. There is a storage device inside a replica of a robotic arm. It's how Pendrick originally sent the evidence to me."
Their captor studied his face closely for several moments before saying, "Thank you, for your cooperation, Mr. Murdoch. It's nice to know considerate people like you still exist in this world."
Next Henry instructed the second man to attend to the matter which he promptly did by leaving the room. This task completed, Henry dropped the hard drive onto the concrete floor and stomped on it several times, until it broke in two. Then he gestured to Julia's escort and the man brought her back beside him. Julia deigned not to look at him.
"Once more we come back to the issue of what to do with you two. High profile individuals such as yourselves always create these sorts of dilemmas for our organization. If I let you go, you will simply blab all of our secrets to the world. Even without physical evidence, people will listen. And we can't have that. Simply threatening your friends and family may or may not have the same desired effect as it did with James Pendrick. You may simply find a work around. And we can't have that. If you suddenly disappear, there will be undue scrutiny, which could potentially lead back to our organization. And we can't have that."
The way the man was carrying on strongly reminded Murdoch of the 'genius' from The Princess Bride...shortly before his untimely demise.
"So you see, there is really only one route we can take together."
"Yeah, yeah we get it," snapped Julia, "you're going to kill us."
Without warning he slapped her hard across the face. Unable to prevent her fall, she fell heavily onto her side, crying out in pain as she landed.
Murdoch gave him a piece of his mind. "How dare you strike her!" he yelled, struggling so fiercely against his restraints that he felt a trickle of blood dripping down his hands. "You will be mincemeat once I give you a good thrashing!"
Julia was just as eloquent as him. "Fuck you!" she said, as the second armed man lifted her back into her seat.
"No, detective, I am not going to kill you." He smiled. "You are."
"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked, for the first time a bit unnerved.
Henry retrieved her Glock and held it up in front of her face. "We have it on good authority that you and Mr. Murdoch have been on the outs lately. A drunk, emotional wreck from your breakup, you accidentally shot your ex-boyfriend with your service pistol. Then unable to deal with the guilt of this action, you finished yourself off as well. A very Shakespearean ending if I say so myself."
"No one would believe such a story," said Murdoch after a stiff swallow.
"Oh wouldn't they? They believed James Pendrick capable of cold blooded murder. I don't see that this is any different. In fact, it's much more believable I think."
"Yeah, except for the fact that a paparazzo got evidence to the contrary. He's probably already posted those pics online." She winked at Murdoch, but it was hardly flirtatious. "They were pretty salacious."
"Ah, yes, I believe you are referring to Greg. He and I go way back."
There was a strained silence.
"Well, get on with it then," grumbled Julia. "I'm tired of listening to your whiny ass voice."
"As you wish," Henry said pleasantly.
Just then the second armed man barged back into the room.
"Sir! Sir!"
"What's happened?" Henry said, whirling around to face him.
"The data disc! It's not where he said it was! Our men can't find it!"
While they were distracted, Julia slipped out of her cracked cuffs, that had been damaged in the fall, and then deftly put Henry into a choke hold, wrenching her gun free with her other hand.
She made sure that her human shield was covering Murdoch as well as herself from the two goons automatics.
"Drop them!" she ordered, aiming her gun alternatively between the two. "And kick them away from yourselves!"
They looked to Henry and he croaked out, "Do as she says."
They did.
Julia held the gun to Henry's head. "Now, untie him!"
Henry nodded his assent and one of them hastily retrieved a pocket knife to cut through Murdoch's restraints. Instantly he felt life return to his fingertips.
"Go into that corner and turn around! Now!" They did. "Collect their guns, Will."
He did so.
"We're leaving now, and if either one of you tries to stop us, your boss is as good as dead."
Murdoch and Julia walked backwards towards the door. Once they were through them, Julia released Henry and pushed him forward with the butt of her pistol.
"You're only delaying the inevitable, detective," he said, as he rubbed his throat. "The mafia never forgives and it most certainly never forgets. Sooner or later you will meet your end. There is-"
Without warning she pistol whipped Henry and he collapsed to the ground. This startled Murdoch so much that he almost pressed the trigger on one of the confiscated guns.
"Finally, silence."
Julia riffled through his pockets, retrieved Henry's cellphone and keys and stashed them in her leather jacket. Taking a defensive stance with her firearm, she slowly moved forward, Murdoch close behind.
They were in some sort of abandoned warehouse, and even though it seemed to be quite a large place, there was no one else around. The complete absence of any other henchmen struck Murdoch as extremely odd. But there was nothing for it except to keep on moving forward.
"Are you all right, Julia?" he enquired, eyeing the red mark across her cheek. "That was a rather nasty blow."
"No worries, Will. I'm hardly a delicate flower." She winked at him again and this time felt that she meant it. "But you knew that already. Anyway, good thing we thought to hide the disc before we left."
"Indeed. Let us hope it remains hidden."
Within five minutes they had made it to the outer doors...and peeking through a window here found the occupants of the other SUV's. They doubled back in search of a different exit, but it was the same story each time. The building was completely surrounded. They were trapped!
Julia swore under her breath in a very unladylike way. She crouched down beside him and whispered. "Okay, Will, we tried things your way. Now it's my turn."
"What do you intend to do, Julia?"
In response she pulled out the cellphone. "Call in the cavalry of course."
Until their arrival, they were vulnerable, so they located a nearby area with some cover and awaited their saviours with baited breath. Unfortunately, before they could be rescued, there was a frenzy of movement as men began seeking them out.
Julia took one of the assault rifles out of his hands and said, "Do you know how to use one of these things?"
He shook his head.
"It's real simple, Will. Hold it like this," she demonstrated, "brace yourself and pull the trigger."
"Do you really think that will be necessary?" he asked, examining the hefty firearm, anxious about potentially taking someone's life.
"Let's hope not, but if it is..."
She let that hang in the air as they went back to vigilance.
Two men began having a conversation nearby.
"Where the hell did they go? If we don't find them and get out of here before the cops do...it's our heads instead."
"They must be in here. We've searched everywhere else. Come on."
Julia snuck a peek around their cover and immediately ducked back as a rain of bullets came her way. After this barrage ended she blindly released a few rounds in their general direction.
"Shit," she cursed. "Now they're all going to come here. Well, Will, I guess you better get some target practice with that thing. I'm going to need all the help I can get."
Nerves tense, he nevertheless nodded and took a peek himself. The men were taking cover behind two metal beams. Besides part of a shoe though, he didn't have any kind of target. The one nearer him, stuck his gun arm around and did much as Julia had, blindly trying to hit them.
Was this how the entire altercation would go? Wasting hordes of bullets on the off chance that one would hit? Is that how all warfare was executed in this time?
It seemed very strange to him...but then again, he wasn't used to automatic weapons capable of such high firing rates. Normally it was six shots and then you had to reload, assuming you even needed more than one or even had additional ammunition with you, which his constables rarely did. There was never any need for such extravagance in the gunfights of 1890's Toronto.
The closest to this situation he had ever been in was when he had travelled to British Colombia to investigate a fake mining expedition. The men of his family had been cornered much like this and his life had been spared simply because of a 'borrowed' book of poetry. Somehow he doubted a book would have much ability to stop one of the bullets currently coming their way.
"Will, what are you doing!?" she shrieked over the roar of gunfire, as more men came pouring into the room, taking cover. "Fire! Fire before they flank us! Before we're both dead!"
That snapped him back to the present good and fast and he opened fire on the men, surprised at the strong kickback of the weapon, but holding on firmly. Since he hadn't been firing previously, one of the men tried to make a dash closer to him and was subsequently caught up in the onslaught. One struck him in the torso and he dropped like a rag doll. It was then that Murdoch realized he had shot a woman with short hair wearing a suit. He felt terrible and wanted to go out and help her but willed himself to stay focused and fire at anything that moved.
Julia ran out of handgun ammo and tossed her Glock aside, picking up the other assault rifle instead. In the interim of this change up, another man tried to make a move on them, but Murdoch warned him off with a couple of shots near his feet. He would try his best not to actually shoot anyone else...unless they threatened Julia's life directly.
The gun fight continued on in this stalemate, neither side making any progress on the other, until Murdoch and then soon after Julia, completely ran out of ammo.
"God no," she said, dropping the useless thing on the ground. "Shit."
In that moment everything else ceased to matter but her. Murdoch blocked out all sound and pulled her close, wrapping her protectively in his arms as if that would spare her life.
The mafia surrounded them.
"Game over."