Save the Princess An Edison & Max Short Story
Edison wove through traffic; his foot stomped on the gas so hard, it was nearly on the floor. He kept one eye on the cars in front of him and the other on the rearview mirror. So far, there was no sign of anyone following him, but that would undoubtedly change as he drew close to the rally point.
Less than an hour ago, Charlie had sent out a distress message to the team.
There weren’t many details, but Ed already had a few guesses.
Crown Prince Jin and West had recently announced their engagement to the world.
As a result, several important diplomats and dignitaries had come to the royal city to take part in the engagement celebration.
That would create ample opportunities for shit to go down.
The only problem he’d come across was that he’d been unable to reach Max. His sexy professor boyfriend was guest lecturing at Jin City University, talking about his many successful digs in Egypt. However, he should have been done with his lecture by now.
Ed tapped a button on the steering wheel. “Call Max.”
But once again, the call went straight to voice mail.
Damn.
It was strange that Max turned off his phone, but the battery could have died. His boyfriend was brilliant but forgetful. There was also the matter of adorable Max being incredibly popular with the students. They had a habit of keeping him late with their questions and demands for more stories.
Ed just prayed they could handle the problem without needing to leave the island of Gaoxing. He didn’t want to leave the country without Max knowing there was a problem.
The sun had finished setting on the horizon, and the shadows were winning the war against the traffic lights.
Dark spots deepened, creating ample hiding places for bad people with lethal weapons.
Not that Ed had a problem with that. He had plenty of experience being a scary man with lots of explosive weapons.
It didn’t matter that he was supposed to be “retired.”
Pfft…who actually retires from having fun?
That was a bunch of bullshit. As long as he could creep, sneak, and sculpt C-4 into a bunny, he wasn’t going to stop.
Except he had a serious boyfriend now who didn’t like him being shot at.
For Max, he was trying to focus on safer pursuits.
He’d spent the past several months splitting his time between assisting Max with his expeditions around Gaoxing and working with the kingdom’s royal guard to improve their training techniques.
Charlie, on the other hand, was retired. His “former” boss was much older and determined to make up for lost years with Will. Not that Ed could blame him. If Charlie was calling together the team for an emergency, this had to be some serious shit.
At last, he reached the turnoff for the port, far from the bright lights and elegance of the center of the royal city. This was a dimly lit, dingy affair. The boat slips were mostly empty, and the vessels he saw were old rotting fishing boats.
Except for the single luxury yacht at the end of the pier that had two burly men in black turtlenecks pacing outside it. Yeah, that didn’t look suspicious at all.
Ed killed the lights on his truck and pulled it quickly into a hidden parking spot as far as he could get from the yacht.
He watched the guards and, so far, they showed no sign of noticing that he’d parked at the marina.
The tall lamps that dotted the dock were intermittently lit, with most being dark, creating wonderful blind spots.
He grabbed his phone to check one last time if there were any messages from Max when he caught a hint of movement out of the corner of his eye. Just as he was reaching for the knife he kept at his side, Charlie’s smiling face appeared in the driver’s side window, nearly stopping Ed’s heart.
“What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get killed?” Ed snarled in a harsh whisper as he shoved his door open.
Charlie rolled his eyes. “I’m too fast for you to kill me.” He was dressed all in black with a black knit hat pulled low on his head to cover his ears and hide his mostly white hair. Charlie might be getting up there in years, but the man was still spry as hell.
“Whatever, old man.” Ed climbed out of the car and silently closed the door.
“What are we looking at? Is the rest of the team here? How many men? Do we have eyes on the asset?” Ed rattled off the important questions with practiced ease.
It might have been several months since the last mission, but he’d been working with Charlie, Kairo, West, and Soren for most of his life. They had a rhythm.
Charlie just grinned at him, not speaking.
Ed arched one eyebrow. Something was off. “What’s with the look?”
“Happy birthday, man.”
“Huh? Nah!” Ed laughed and rocked backward into the truck. “Are you shitting me? You called me here for a surprise birthday party?”
“Nope. Even better. Birthday mission.”
“What?” he chuckled. None of this was making sense, but at least he didn’t need to worry about this being a life-and-death situation.
Charlie slung an arm across Ed’s massive shoulders and walked him to the trunk to face the yacht at the end of the docks.
“We thought we’d set up a fun adventure mission for you for laughs.
There are thirty men on the ship holding a kidnapped princess hostage.
You need to sneak on, incapacitate the kidnappers, and rescue the princess before they can capture you.
My job is to confiscate any of your lethal weapons.
” As he finished speaking, Charlie held out his hand.
“And did you do the same for the kidnappers, or are you sending me in there with a slingshot while they’ve all got Glocks?” Ed demanded even as he slapped his Smith & Wesson into Charlie’s hand.
“You’re all being given paintball guns.” Ed’s head whipped around when he heard Will’s voice. Charlie’s boyfriend smirked as he walked past the trunk of his SUV to him. “You’ve got red pellets, and the other team has blue.”
“Good to see you, Doc. You here to take part in the fun?”
Will rolled his eyes. “No, I’m here in case there’s an accident.
You’re also being given a red marker to use in place of a knife.
While everyone is supposed to take the exercise seriously, please remember to hold back a little.
No broken bones, concussions, or injuries that would require more than two stitches. ”
Ed made a finger gun and pointed it at Will. “Got it. Two-stitch limit. I’ll see what I can do.” He turned his focus to Charlie. “Any other details on who I’m facing?”
Charlie shrugged. “It’s an interesting mix. Jin’s head of royal security loaned us some volunteers who were interested in testing their skills. Mostly newer recruits. A year or two under their belts.”
Will grunted and glared at Charlie. “There are also some hard-core veterans on that boat. Be careful.”
“I was getting to that part,” Charlie argued, and Will gave him a look. Charlie turned his grin to Ed. “You’ve got an hour. Have fun. And happy birthday.”
“Yes, happy birthday, Edison. This makes no sense to me, but I really hope you enjoy yourself.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I will.” This was the perfect gift for his birthday. A little something to get the blood pumping. There wasn’t much more fun in the world than sneaking and fighting. Maybe blowing stuff up. And, well, sex with his boyfriend beat out all other things.
Thoughts of Max had him pulling out his cell phone and glancing at the screen. Still no calls or texts from Max. Having him here was the only thing that could have made this adventure better.
Frowning, he held the phone out to Charlie. “I’ve been trying to get a hold of Max, but he’s not returning my calls. I’m guessing his lecture ran long. If he calls, could you tell him what’s up?”
“Got it,” Charlie agreed easily as he pocketed Ed’s phone.
Will patted him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. We won’t let Max miss out on this.”
That was good. Ed wished he could share this fun with Max, but they had very different ideas of fun.
He enjoyed sneaking and blowing things up.
Max enjoyed crawling through old ruins and digging in the dirt.
He didn’t mind accompanying Max on his archeological expeditions, but it was a little hard for Max to tag along on Ed’s war games and rescue missions.
Yet, he’d always been there at the end with a drink, a bandage, and a wide grin on his face. Ed just hoped he’d been there with those things at the end of this so-called rescue mission.
With a wink at Charlie, Ed darted along the dock, sticking to the deep shadows and lurking behind parked cars and large crates as he worked his way closer to the yacht.
He crouched beside a large box truck and rubbed his chin as he looked over the seven guards on the dock.
They looked pretty professional but definitely green in their manner.
Their arrangement was sloppy and left too many openings.
These must be the newest recruits for the royal security team.
It also didn’t hurt that Charlie hadn’t searched him prior to setting him loose.
Ed dug through the pockets of his black cargo pants until he came up with a set of firecrackers, smoke bombs, and a spare wick.
His nimble fingers tied the things he needed in the proper order before he snagged his flameless lighter.
At just the right second, he lit his mini-bomb and tossed it into a trash can two slips down from the yacht. He hurried past the boat when smoke poured out of the can followed by a loud, concussive bang.
More than half the guards rushed to check out the trash can, running past Ed’s hiding place.
With a smirk, Ed lifted his paintball gun and popped off five of the guards.
They had no idea what had happened until it was too late.
Shouts and groans rose from the chaos, but they dutifully lay down on the dock, “dead,” even though one of them stopped to stomp his foot in frustration.