It was back on the road again. Back to audio torture or boring news from the radio. Back to driving at dawn because Bryan got places to be and people to kill. At this point, he had been gone for two days and so he didn't have much left before he'd reach his destination. A text from Lei asked for an ETA and Bryan decided to be generous to the man. If he pushed himself, he'd be there at midnight.
Whatever happened after that was a toss-up to fate.
But he had made a promise to himself as well as Josie. As if the gods of chance (assuming they existed) had been in a special mood this morning, the phone buzzed on the dashboard. Despite racing down, the highway at a legal speed to not raise suspicion, he reached for the device, his eyes snapping to the screen momentarily. His generator jumped at the name that flashed over the display and he answered, tapping the speaker option before letting the device rest on his thigh.
"Have you gotten the habit of getting up super early?" Bryan asked, realizing that it had been quite a while since he had a phone conversation with anyone. He found it wholly awkward.
"What happened to hello?" Josie asked with a laugh before she continued.
Her voice was like a godsend, bubbly and sweet as usual. Hearing it again however filled Bryan with such warmth and longing, intense enough to make him clench the steering wheel. The feeling of yearning was getting bad when he found himself looking at the pictures she'd send of herself, the mule, and some pink-haired girl (Probably Doctor Bosconovitch's daughter who only faintly looked like him) having fun around the cabin. Bryan conceded that he wouldn't be aching so badly if the threat of death wasn't waiting for him by midnight.
Josie asked, her voice silvery and light. "How are you?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Are they treating you well?" Bryan responded, letting out a silent breath through his nose. On the other end, Josie livened up and bubbled like fresh soda.
"Oh, yes! Alisa is so sweet. She's super nice. You two have a lot in common."
That didn't bode well. "Sweet" and "a lot in common" with Bryan of all people sounded oxymoronic – and a recipe for disaster if the mule was there. Then again, it came from Josie, who took to explaining the details when Bryan didn't respond.
"It turns out she's a cyborg. The doctor told me he used some of your data to give her an…" Josie paused before continuing, biting out every word as if she was trying to avoid getting into a tongue twister. "A nanomechanical artificially bioorganic body over a robotic one. I was told to give you his thanks."
Oh. Though Bryan wasn't interested in science jargon, he remembered Doctor Abel using similar words to describe the process of reanimation. When put in layman's terms, he did understand what had happened to him. He also thought one needed organic material for it but apparently, it could be done with robots. That was almost frightening.
"Huh, well…good for him I guess," Bryan shrugged, his apathy hardly matching the energy of the girl on the other end.
"Mm-hm! I can't wait for you two to meet. She's polite and gentle. I bet you're gonna love her – though not as much as you love me of course. Besides Zafina is all over her too so you have to wait in line."
There was a hint of mischief in her voice that caused Bryan to smile a bit despite the tension that rested behind his question.
"Leaving you to rot?"
"No! it's like a girl's night every day!" Josie exclaimed proudly, just as voices in the background began speaking; two voices, both feminine.
For once, Zafina the mule didn't sound like she was contemplating the ways of being reprimanding and overbearing. She also didn't sound like she was talking to a baby, as she tended to do with Josie. She sounded normal; happy even. She spoke to someone, probably the elusive Alisa, who sounded like a young, naïve doe-eyed maiden. Around Josie's age or younger.
"Good to hear you're having fun," Bryan relaxed a bit, listening in to Josie telling stories of her daily girl's nights. Which consisted mostly of shopping trips, cooking, watching movies and Josie learning how to drive. She sounded like she had a blast, almost enough for her to not worry about Bryan or how much she missed him. That was all right.
She deserves it.
Josie deserved more than Bryan could give her. But somewhere along the line, she had accepted that. And well, she was happy with such an outcome. So was he, as unbelievable as that sounded. He'd come back and show her a grand ol' time. Because she deserved the very best.
Around late night, there was a change of pace. It was an hour before midnight when Bryan give Lei his beloved ETA and hopped out of the now-parked vehicle. He had chosen to walk the last distance to the location, lest he alerted Doctor Abel or any of his possible goons.
From the looks of it, the building was abandoned at this time of night. Good, it made breaking in easier. He wasted no time pulling out his arsenal of weapons; a few grenades, a knife, the riffle he'd shoot animals with, and a machine gun. Upon gearing up, he regretted that he didn't spend the time procuring a rocket launcher.
Oh well.
Bryan finished the last preparations, letting the phone sit in the car for safety's sake. Not that he cared about the device but he needed it to give Josie an update when all of this was over. Faint footsteps around him caught his attention and for a moment, his entire body geared up for a bloody fight until a bright light flashed in his face, temporarily blinding him.
"Dressed for murder as usual," Lei said with a laugh. He lowered the flashlight a bit and pointed it at the ground, somewhat still illuminated by its glare. A few feet behind him, there was the shape of Yoshimitsu with his arms folded over his chest.
"You could be naked, and you'd still be dressed to kill," that bastard said.
"Eat shit and choke on the corn," Bryan growled before turning his attention to Lei, spotting the standard-issue handgun strapped to his hips. Lei had that and a Taser for self-defense. Of course, the man could fight but he was also just human. Less than impressed, Bryan took the rifle and tossed it his way.
"Wulong, that puny water gun isn't going to do anything," Bryan turned around, not waiting for a response, much less any objections.
The clock was closing in on midnight, and they had a mission to embark on.
Together, the three of them made their way down the empty road, surrounded by formless darkness and utter silence. Like a calm before the storm. For Bryan, it felt like marching in boot camp albeit without any rhythm. Morbidly, more like walking into active warfare. Just for a moment, he allowed himself to think and wonder what the two others thought as they all walked to confront a mad scientist.
Was the thought of death hanging over them as well? They didn't know Abel like Bryan did so probably not.
Anyway, it wasn't like he cared what they thought; all that mattered was them not getting in the way. And the possibility of a broken promise to Lei. Doctor Abel wouldn't leave this place alive. That wasn't right. It wasn't fair to those he had killed and hurt. It wasn't fair to Josie. Whether she liked it or not, Bryan would kill the doctor for her. It wouldn't bring back her family, but it would tip the scales of fairness a little bit.
Before long, they stood in front of the factory's main entrance. Naturally, the door was locked when Lei tried the handle. He flashed some light on the sticker that warned intruders of an alarm before he knelt in front of the door and searched through his pockets and pulled out a lockpick. So much for being a good cop and here Bryan thought, he'd be making a big spiel about getting a warrant.
"No warrant?" Bryan asked mockingly.
Lei answered as if it had been a genuine question not dipped in pure sarcasm. "You and I both know that there are exceptions, and one is called exigent circumstances. Doctor Abel is a suspect in numerous crimes unrelated to Josie and he's considered a threat to public safety. That aside, I do actually have a warrant."
Of course. Bryan was just trying to take the piss. He personally didn't give a hoot about getting a warrant, but he also wasn't a cop anymore. Still, impressively shady of Lei to outright pick the lock and push the door open, allowing access to the factory. Inside, a clean sterile scent filled the air, clinical like labs tended to be. Which was telling as this was supposed to be a factory.
Lei flashed the light around over every surface, not finding much other than what one would expect from a location like this. Potted plants, plaques of achievements, employees of the month, meaningless paintings of abstract art, and the receptionist's desk. There was a door and an elevator that lead to the upper floors, as well as an open doorway that showed a massive room that contained the workstations of the poor bastards stuck working here.
"There's nothing here," Yoshimitsu said, dejected. To the untrained eye, he'd be correct. Bryan looked around, spotting another pair of plastic bottled plants.
All across the floor, there was the painted logo of the factory, all looking rather washed out due to being walked on every day. All except for the logo located between two potted plants. When Bryan stepped closer, it appeared to be freshly applied, despite being located by a window, where cleaners and whatnot would stand. To the untrained eye, there was nothing, but to Bryan...
He tried to move one of the pots, finding it bolted to the floor. Curiously, the other pot remained unmovable as well. Bryan grumbled a bit; they were gonna torch this place anyway (maybe, possibly, hopefully) so he didn't care about making a mess, ripping the plastic plants apart and digging out the pellets that substituted soil until he had emptied both pots – and found a switch.
The doctor probably employed a much easier method for this, but the end result was probably the same; the logo between the two pots sinking into the floor, surrounded by a hexagonal shape. Like some sort of lift. Without hesitation, Bryan stepped onto it, only to be met by green lights that ran down the walls of the tunnel shaft.
"Wow, a hidden entrance!" Lei exclaimed and stepped onto the sinking platform with Yoshimitsu in tow as it sank further into the floor, bringing some light to the darkness.
Anticipation lingered in the air like a looming ghost while they traveled further and further down. The lift emanated a low, droning sound that filled the gap of silence. It was reminiscent of a lab, which Bryan had been in plenty of times. It brought plenty of distasteful memories. Funnily enough, Lei nudging his elbow soothed it just a bit.
"Say, what did you and Josie do at the cabin?"
The honest, short answer would be living an ordinary life. The detailed answer would be hunting, butchering game, cooking, fooling around, and fooling around in the sheets but Lei should not be told that otherwise neither Bryan nor Josie would ever live that down. The way he asked that question so casually, suggested he wasn't alluding to that either.
Yet Bryan was not in the mood for small talk, let alone discussing his life with Josie and so he simply scowled at Lei in silence. Thank the heavens that the lift came to a stop just then, resting at the bottom of the tunnel, right in front of a small staircase that led to a lab entrance. Immediately, Yoshimitsu drew his swords and slashed the door into sizable chunks, causing the pieces to fall onto the floor with hollow thuds.
According to Josie, that was also how he saved her, and she spoke of the incident with such wonderment and awe, ignorant of Bryan's silent seething jealousy. Down the hallway, the gray metallic walls were partly illuminated by fluorescent lamps attached to the ceiling. It was quiet once again, almost eerily so. No alarm howling somewhere. Just cameras watching them, almost as if they were expected.
A strange feeling gathered in Bryan's gut as he tightened his grip around the machine gun, taking charge as the human shield until they neared a sharp corner, stopped by a faint sound of something indecipherable. He took one of his grenades and considered pulling the pin when Lei put his hand on his arm and took his puny gun. Like the good cop that he was, he stood with his back against the wall before rolling out into the open with his gun pointed at whatever it was – then lowered it.
"False alarm," his shoulders slumped in relief. He took a single step when an alarm howled through the hallway and the lights turned red.
Well shit, they had done it now.
Panels in the ceiling opened and from the gap came a metallic shutter that isolated them from the one exit out of here. Footsteps, lots of them, came running towards the trio from another cut-off corner, that led further into the lab, stopping the three of them at the midway point. A legion of guards dressed in black stood ready with guns in hand; similar to the ones Bryan had fought when he went to rescue Josie.
As they raised their weapons, he grabbed Lei around the collar of his shirt and threw him towards the corner, just as bullets began raining. With him being as sturdy as it was, Bryan felt little of it, shielding Yoshimitsu with his body. Behind him, the swordsman began chanting – heaven knew about what while Bryan pulled the pin of the grenade in his hand and launched it into the chest of one guard before taking Yoshimitsu and booking it for the corner.
When the guard realized what had been thrown at him, he panicked seconds before the blast went off. A shockwave rippled over the hallway, blowing the guards apart and stopping the bullet storm entirely. A smell of gunpowder and singed flesh unsurprisingly lingered.
Bryan may have cut it a little too close as his ears were ringing from the blast.
Lei said something to him, but it ended up sounding like meaningless garble. He ignored it and walked around the corner, spotting human remains strewn all over the blackened floor and walls. He turned to look at Lei, who paled and covered his mouth to withhold vomit. Yoshimitsu bore the gore better, ignoring it as they walked past, hurrying their pace as the alarms still howled above them.
This was going to be a long night for the lot of them.
