Conquest ~ Indian Hill 3 ~ A Michael Talbot Adventure (63 page)

“Deb
,
what day is it
?
” I think I yelled.

A light next to my bed snapped on
.
Tracy was reaching for her weapon. “What’s the matter?”
s
he said
,
scanning the room for the threat.

My mind was addled, I could not piece together the juxtaposition of the woman I thought I was sharing my bed with to the one that was actually there. “Who are
—
”
I almost completed the sentence
before my mind was able to put tab ‘A’ in slot ‘B’. “Tracy…
sorry. I had a bad dream
,” I said
,
putting my hand up to my head
.
N
ormally
,
I’d say it was for dramatic effect but I had been ‘lost’ for nearly
fifteen
seconds. If that was what Alzheimer’s
wa
s like
,
I was hoping I died young.

“At least you didn’t say
‘
Beth
’
. I might have had to use this
,” Tracy said
,
flashing her 9
mm as she put it back in the holster that hung from the bed.

I smiled weakly because she wasn’t kidding.

“Do you need some water
?” she asked
, unscrewing the top and handing me a bottle.

“Actually,
the opposite. I’ll be right back
,” I said
going out the door to the head at the end of the hallway. I stopped to look at myself in the
mirror
.
M
y eyes were re
d
-
rimmed and heavy with black underneath. I looked like I had come out of the wrong end of a fight. “You
look
like shit
,” I told
my reflection.”

“Yeah,
you don’t look so good either
,
”
I
replied.

“
Touché
. I’ll be back in a sec, I gotta take care of some business.” I headed to one of the stalls. Some of you women may or may not know this and your man may or may not admit to it, but if a guy is tired we are not above sitting on the john to take care of our liquid disposal. I had just sat down when I heard someone else enter. Maybe more tha
n one someone
s.

“I know I saw him come in here
,”
o
ne of the people said. I had never heard the man’s voice before.

“The
stall
,”
c
ame another male voice.

“Be out in a sec.”
Dammit
,
I was breaking man-code
i
f they kn
ew I was in
t
here taking a leak.
I stayed in a little
longer than necessary.

“No
need to hurry
,”
t
he first man said, I heard his footfalls coming closer. Something was up, I was glad I hadn’t needed to take care of a more solid problem or I would have been caught with my pants down, literally. I pulled my pants up and stood on the stall seat just as the door crashed in. The man had fully
expected me to still be on the john and was surprised when his face met my foot head on.

My foot blazed in pain
as I struck his face with my heel
, I wished I had remembered to put my boots on before I came. His head snapped back and he was going to be hurting
,
but he wasn’t out of commission. His buddy was behind him, I could hear the crackle of
the
stun gun
in
his hand.

“Bastard kicked me
,”
t
he first man said
, dressed in khaki pants and
a
short sleeved button down shirt, he almost looked governmental like CIA in a foreign country, his buddy by contrast looked like he just rolled in from Philly, he had a beer gut and baseball hat
.

“Move out of the way, one zap with this and he won’t be kicking anyone.”

I was scared
,
what the hell was going on here? I doubted
the company that held my car note had sent the goons to rough me up for lack of payment.

I was wary, I was preparing to make the man with the stun gun pay dearly for his lack of judgment. He passed his buddy by and approached slowly. From my crouch I stood up and visibly relaxed, I may have even smiled.

“What’s he doing
?”
t
he first man said as he rubbed his cheek.

“
They
said he might be a little crazy after his time on the ship. This’ll fix him
,” he said
,
running a blue arc across the leads.

“You’re fucked
,” I said
,
smiling. This was punctuated by a large ‘Ooomph’ and then clatter as skull met ceramic sink.

“What the hell?”
Philly
asked as he was thrust violently off the ground. H
is
head making bone jarring contact with the ceiling, he was out cold before his body
landed
.

“I see you have made new friends
,” Dee said
, I think with some amusement.

“I could have taken care of them
,” I told
him.

“I see that now
,” Dee said
.

“Are you smiling?”

“Possibly
—
what is this about?”

“I don’t know, I came in here and then these two followed. But they were looking for me and they’re working with someone else.”

I started rifling through their pockets, not sure what I was going to find. Both had knives, the first guy had pepper spray and then a bunch of change.
T
hat was it.

“Did anyone see you come in here?” I asked Dee.

“I did not smell anyone.”

“How did you know I was here?”

Dee pointed to his nose.

“Were you looking for me for a reason?”

“Your time grows short
;
I had wished to spend
some of your last few hours here
together.”

“I understand the gesture, bad phrasing
,
though
,” I said
.
Dee was looking at me quizzically. “You make it sound final.”

“No,
the
phrasing
was correct
,” Dee said
for clarification.

The door to the bathroom opened, Tracy looked in surveying the room quickly.

“What’s wrong with you that you can’t even go to the bathroom without causing a scene?”

I shrugged.

“What happened here
?” she asked
.

“Michael would not share his roll of toilet paper
,” Dee said
with a straight face.

My face dropped before I started laughing, my gut hurt so bad I thought I was going to pull a muscle.
Dee started a heavy snorting, I don’t think I had ever heard a Genogerian in a full out hearty laugh.

“Great
,
Michael, as an emissary to the entire
planet
E
arth you have taught our guests bathroo
m humor.” Tracy turned to leave.
“
I’ll get some guards.
”

I stopped long enough to tell her to get men she trusted.

"Are you alright?" I asked Dee as we waited.

"Your surgeons extracted the shrapnel with skill, it did little more than lacerate the skin."

I figured he was lying but then it looked like even Genogerians were capable of male bravado.

After another full five minutes of laughing and the removal of my attackers. I headed
to Paul’s office where my would-
be way-layers were being taken.

“You coming?” I asked Dee.

Dee composed himself quickly as if the matter had never happened. “Indeed.”

The two men were sitting in front of Paul’s desk. Smelling salts had just been administered but both looked a bit groggy and blood was still flowing freely from the head of the one that had met the sink intimately. 

“Who do you two work for?” Paul asked when he was reasonably confident that they were aware enough.

“When do we get our lawyer?”
Philly, the man
who had crashed into the ceiling asked.

“No,
lawyer
,
but I’ll promise a Priest
,” Paul answered
the message clearly, they talked now or they would be killed as traitors.

“You’ve got nothing on us. We just wanted to see how tough he was. Would have kicked his ass too, if his big green friend hadn’t of interrupted.”

“So you’re
just a couple of regular guys looking to have an honest fight, with a stun gun, mace and knives against a guy in a bathroom? Seems like a little bit of overkill to me
,”
Paul asked.

Philly
shrugged.

Paul pulled out his pistol and placed a round in the man’s knee. His screams far outdid the echo of the round being fired in the small room.

“Oh shit, oh geez, oh shit
!”
CIA
said
,
coming to full awakening. He was struggling against his handcuffs to get free. “You can’t do that
,
we have rights
!
”

“That’s where
you’re
wrong
.
Y
ou don’t have shit anymore
” Paul said
, putting his pistol back in
its
holster.

The screams of the second man subsided, but he was turning a deathly pale from pain and shock.

“Do you want medical attention?” Paul asked him calmly.

I could tell the man
wanted to pull that stoic shit
and give Paul a last act of defiance
,
but the pain and the fear of death were too great
.
H
e nodded quickly. “Please
,”
h
e whispered.

“Information first
,” Paul said
,
sitting on the corner of his desk.

“Come on
,
man
,
he said he would talk
.
J
ust get him some help
,”
CIA
said. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know!”

Paul quickly pulled his pistol from his holster and leveled it on the man’s forehead. “Shut
up
.
O
ne more word from you and I will splatter your brains on the wall behind you.

I moved to the side
.
I didn’t think the people doing laundry would be able to get brain out of my clothes.

CIA
just about swallowed his lips.
Philly
was close to
fainting.

“Better hurry up before you pass out
,” Paul said
. “You fall asleep now and there will be no waking up.”

“Alright, alright
,” the man said
with great difficulty. “There was a man, he said he’d get us out of here and set up in a safe place if we got him the man that killed his brother.” Man two passed out.

“Get him
help
,”
h
is friend
begged.

Paul waved to one of the guards to get a
doctor.

“Where’s this man reside?” Paul asked the first man, who was still too busy looking at his friend
,
looking for signs of life. Paul pressed the
warm
barrel
o
f the pistol against this forehead
.
T
hat got his attention quick.

“Hous
-
housing quarters 17, section 11 room 14.”

“
Take
a couple more men with you
,”
Paul told the remaining guard.

I did an involuntary shudder, I killed
at least
a dozen or so men
—
any
one of them could have had a brother, but odds were on one and one alone.