Disclaimer: I don't own Human Target and intend no copyright infringement.
"Ames is going to kill me for this", Chance thought and parried Eva's blow.
… … …
"What is it?", Ilsa asked Guerrero.
Guerrero didn't bother to look up from the monitor. He merely arched his eyebrows. "Don't know what you're talking about."
"The shadow that passed over your face. Just for a tiny second. Don't tell me it wasn't there. I saw it! Tell me what the matter is!" Ilsa was all but hissing.
"You should watch the fight, not me", Guerrero muttered, his eyes not leaving the screen.
"I know next to nothing about samurai sword fights, but I know you. Something you saw made you concerned. What was it?" Trust Ilsa to not give up when she had gotten an idea firmly into her head.
Her insistence was contagious. Winston turned and focused his attention on Guerrero, too.
"She's right. There's something about the way the corners of your eyes twitch. Barely recognizable behind the glasses, but it's there."
"You need glasses, dude." Guerrero was still staring at the monitor, studying every move of the fighters. The grayish light of the monitor deepened the scars on his face and made his skin look pale. Or had it really lost color in the past sixty seconds since the fight had started? It was impossible to tell.
Ilsa and Winston exchanged glances. Something wasn't right and Guerrero didn't want to talk about it.
Not a good sign. Not good at all.
"You would tell me if Chance was up to something, wouldn't you?", Ames asked, her eyes just as glued to the screen as Guerrero's. Her voice was small and quivered. She had a goddamn bad feeling about this whole thing.
Ilsa put a hand on Guerrero's shoulder. Only a very light touch, with Guerrero you always had to be careful not to trigger any semi-automatic defense mechanisms. When she could be sure he wouldn't retaliate, she gently squeezed it.
Guerrero nodded, half in resignation, half in relief. He was a man who kept many things to himself, but this was too much. He needed to share.
"The first blow. If Chance had slightly adjusted the angle of his blade, he could have disarmed Eva. The way she had her shoulders tensed up… she wouldn't have been able to compensate the impact. It would have at least destabilized her grip, if not sent the whole sword flying. She's nervous. He could have made use of that."
"But he didn't…" Ames' voice sounded even shakier than a minute before. She had known it! This whole trip down memory lane, the temple thing, the tattoos… Chance had started dwelling on stuff and when Chance dwelt, things had a tendency to spin out of control. Just ask Winston about an incident with a bank, a bomb and an ashram…
"Maybe he didn't notice", Ilsa suggested, shrugging her shoulders and making a helpless gesture with her hands.
Winston shook his head. "He noticed alright."
"But why?" Ilsa couldn't believe it. "The plan was that he beats Eva, then has mercy on her and refrains from killing her. This way he demonstrates to her that the organizers of the tournament can't and won't do anything against the decision because it's up to the rightful leader of the temple to set the rules. True leaders don't follow through with something just because somebody else says so, they listen to what their heart tells them. And their heart should always tell them to spill as little blood as possible. That was the message we wanted to get across. Why would he want to change that?"
Ames gasped. So did Winston.
Thanks to her rant Ilsa hadn't seen the complete maneuver, only the end part: Eva moved forward, Chance basically stepped into the blow, the blade barely missed his right shoulder… no! Apparently she had cut through the fabric of the cloth covering Chance's upper arm. Had she injured him? It was so damn hard to make out any details on the monitor!
He didn't seem to be hindered in his movements, but...
"Let me guess, he could have easily avoided that, right?", Winston asked Guerrero.
Guerrero merely nodded.
Winston made a fist and hit the nearest wall. "He's going to let her win! That goddamn fool!"
"He's going to let her win, with the idea to tear down his mask at the last minute so that she realizes whom she almost decapitated… to teach her that once you went down the killing road, nobody will be safe… you're bound to hurt those close to you", Ilsa whispered, almost absentmindedly.
Winston could only nod in agreement. Yes, this sounded exactly like Chance…
Ames was crying by now… the risk he was taking… if Eva delivered the deadly blow before he had a chance to reveal himself…
The fight was reaching the three minute mark now. Despite what they showed on TV, three minutes of sword fighting, that was incredibly long and extremely exhausting. The audio feed indicated that both Chance's and Eva's breathing had grown significantly louder within the last minute. So had the drums. The end was drawing nigh.
Suddenly Eva delivered a kick to the back of Chance's right knee. Chance lost his balance. Another kick to his elbow disarmed him of his sword. He fell to his knees.
The drums stopped beating.
Eva quickly pushed the fallen sword out of her opponent's reach. Then she froze.
She had made it. Her opponent was beaten. Without his weapon there was no way he could defend himself. He seemed to be terribly exhausted. Eva felt close to falling unconscious herself. Her whole body was shaking. Everything in her seemed to be screaming for rest… for peace…
Would she even be able to deliver the stroke that would separate his head from his shoulders? She had to do it in one go, everything else would cause her opponent incredible pain. And she had to do it now; every second she hesitated was a second more torture for him. Making somebody wait for his own death, fully conscious, was one of the worst things one could do to another person.
Even the rainforest seemed to have fallen silent in horrified anticipation.
"What is he waiting for? What the hell is he waiting for?", Ames screamed at the monitor. "He's got all the time to remove the goddamn mask, WHAT IS HE WAITING FOR?"
They all couldn't do anything but stare at the image on the screen: Chance kneeling in front of Eva.
Eva stepped closer and raised her sword.
The monitor went blank. Blackout. No power.
The audio feed was still on.
They heard a blade swish through the air.