Chapter 24 Abducted

Max

July 21st, 2017

2:49 PM

Rome, Italy

Rome Airstrip

A bag over my head is pulled away uncovering my sleepy face. I'm awakening from my anesthesia rendered by one of Alkaline's right-hand men. I wake up on a chair with my wrist bound by plastic cable ties. In a room surrounded by ConDef goons and the same mercenary thug who knocked me out with a stick of wood staring eye to eye in front of me. Sitting down on another chair backward. Beginning to interrogate me once I was fully awake.

"Mattina, occhi luminosi," the merc spoke in Italian. "Or as they say in my country and yours: Morning, bright eyes. Remember me? Name's Tie as Alkaline calls me. You should thank me, darling."

"Uh…right," I said confused. "Thanks."

"No, really. The Prescott lady paid me to get rid of you. But for me? I'm a nice guy. I saved your life. Right now, I'm the only friend you got."

"Uh-huh. And now you figure I owe you something. Is that it?"

"Smart gal. I like that. You are way ahead of me. It is really a simple question. Meridian Prime."

"Of course."

"Where is it?"

"I don't know, buddy."

"Bullshit."

"Look, even if I did know, my life wouldn't be worth very much once I told you now. Would it?"

"You insult me."

"You're a mercenary."

"And a good businessman. Give me some respect!"

The mercenary named Tie got off his chair and stood up continuing the interrogation. Walking behind me for intimidation and pressure.

"Let's try this again," continued Tie. Opening his mouth next to my ear. "Where – is – Meridian, Max?"

"Look," I said. "You can torture me all you want-"

"Okay."

"But I can't tell you what I don't know."

Tie was beginning to walk away as his fellow ConDef thugs ganged up between me.

"Maybe so," he said as he was about to leave the room. "We'll see if your friends and family are more…cooperative."

"What?" I started. "Who?"

"Your friends. Rachel Amber and Frank Bowers? And your Uncle and cousin Bryan and Alex Caulfield. I don't want to do this, but you've clearly forced my hand."

"Wait-"

"No, no, no. You have given me no choice. Perhaps your companions will be more grateful for their lives."

Tie approached the exit and I yelled at me as he was making his exit across the door.

"Wait!" I shouted. "You leave my friends and family alone!"

"Cheers, Max," said Tie. Shutting the door behind him and leaving me with his other hostile men to torment me.

"You don't touch them!" I barked.

A larger mercenary stood in front of me. One that stood seven-foot-tall and as tall as the body-built thug I fought back at the Low Bar in Vancouver. My greetings with my torturer weren't going to be a pleasant one. The foreboding torturer made a sinister laugh.

"This is gonna be fun," said the brutish torturer.

The man hit me in the check with his fingers clenched together and it stung. Last time I was bound to a chair, it wasn't any less unpretty. Except getting photoshoots was less abusive than a strike across the face. My torturer circles around me and continued interrogating until I opened my mouth.

"Don't want to tell us what we want to know, huh?" My interrogator thought.

The man leaned his close to my face with a sickening frown. I return the expression, headbutt the man, and stand on my legs while still bound on the chair and crashing it against the wall break me free and knocking another good down. I break out of my restraints like Supergirl and start playing Super-Max the time warrior with Alkaline's thugs.

I swing my fist at the tall man and he ducked beneath my strike and strangles me by my shirt. I shake him off and headbutt him again. He swings his fist at me and I duck under his fist to give him a counterstrike across the face. Then one last blow to the nose knocks him down for good. The tall brute wasn't as strong as the last, but that was a minimal problem. The major problem was me against a dozen guys. Where was Alex or Rachel when you need them? Captured, that's where.

I pick up a wrench in the room and swing it across my next opponent that knocks him out with one hit. I spend the next minute punching, kicking, dodging, and countering my surrounding opponents like Batgirl and give Alkaline's men everything I've got. Unlike Rachel, I'm not usually this athletic when it comes to fighting. I have done a little bag and balloon punching here and there over the years to prepare myself for a scenario like this, however. Even when I had no reason to given my promise I had been breaking for the past two weeks.

Once the final blow was delivered to the last guy standing, it was time for the main event. An even taller brutish ConDef goon stormed inside to finish me as everyone's last resort. Now this was the opponent that was just as strong as the one I fought in the bar if not stronger than the last. Your gonna get now Caulfield. Time for round two of WWE: Super-Max Vs. the Bruiser.

"Oh, shit," I said. "Where did you come from?"

The muscle man himself charged at me, swung his fist, and I dodged his fatal strike. Giving him a kick in the back to shove him over. I strike a couple of punches at my brutish opponent that are weak but thought fast until he counters one of them and throws a kick towards me which I dodge as well. Then I kick him myself right in the groin and throw another punch that hurts him more effectively. The brute is dropped to his knees and I keep striking again and again across his cheeks that have a little more effect on him than before. Right up until he counters my swings, seizes me by the shoulders, and attempts to give me fatal headbutt until I counter it as well.

I continue the same fighting technique and strategy until my brutal opponent is weak enough to drop down on his knees again. So I could hit him one last time in the face with my bare fist that renders him KO on the floor and completely down for the count. Fatality!

"And stay down…please," I say catching my breath.

I caught my last breath from all the heavy fighting. Taking a good look around the room fool of fallen sleepy heads put down with my fist and feet. The Amazing Spider-Max strikes again. Hella awesomesauce.

Looking around other details of the room, it appeared to be some kind of storage chamber. Crates, containers, right where I was tied to that chair for interrogation. Alkaline's men must've taken me here while I was knocked out. The question was if Alex and the others were captured too, where did they take them? How long was I out too?

I also remembered the picture of Chloe that was taken in the streets of Rome. The one Joanna showed me at that café table outdoors. Were my parents out here to look for me too? If everyone I left behind on this suicide trip was out to get me, I was going to have a lot to answer for with all my shenanigans. If ConDef hadn't captured them too, that is. Joanna did promise she'd leave Chloe and everyone else on the outside I was close to out of this if I had done what she asked. I may have just blown that the second I cut and ran after Alkaline.

I no longer had the codex nor the shard with me. They clearly had taken them out of my pockets when I was captured. I needed to get out of here. I take the exit Tie took earlier and open the door to a small hallway where I see my harness hanging the wall, but all my other gear is gone. Gun holster empty and flashlight removed too.

"Empty," I said. "Of course, it's empty."

I put on my harness and walk down the hall for the exit outdoors. Once I stepped outside for the sweet fresh air, I took a good look around to find myself in the middle of an airstrip outside of Rome. Storage crates and containers stacked around, luggage holed up in places, it was indeed an airport of some sort. And not the Leonardo Da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport tourist land in town, but an outpost ConDef must be used as a private facility of operations.

"Where the hell am I?" I wondered.

I also notice the sun coming down. Confirming it was close to the middle of the afternoon going on the early evening. I must've been out for hours tied up and bagged in that room. I hope Chloe hadn't gotten herself tied into this while tracking me down here. I'll be ready for that slap in the face and breakdown after I find Alex and the others as well as the codex and shard needed for the rest of the journey. Anytime. Any day I don't get captured by ConDef and tear my relationship with Chloe is a good day.

"Look at this place," I said. "Shit. Here goes nothing."