Chapter Nineteen #3
“Fourteen!” I breathed, getting to my feet. I approached slowly, gun trained on Keller as he huddled amongst the corpses of his bodyguards. “I’ve got you now, you rat bastard.”
I clenched my teeth, squeezing the trigger of my gun.
It clicked, an empty, hollow sound. Fuck.
I needed to reload. Capitalising on my surprise, Keller jumped up and ran headlong back towards the building as I frantically reloaded my gun.
Just as I turned, training my gun across the courtyard, there was a loud bang.
Keller dropped like a stone, and it took me longer than it should have to spot the shooter. On his knees atop the dumpster, chest heaving breathlessly, was Aaron. His gun barrel was smoking, still pointing to where Keller had stood. Time seemed to slow down.
“Fifteen,” he called out.
My knees nearly gave out as I sprinted across the courtyard towards him. Aaron was just hopping down from the dumpster as I crashed into him, wrapping him up in a hug.
“Oof,” he groaned. “Careful. I think I’ve fractured a rib. I hit that dumpster pretty hard.”
“I’m not surprised!” I gasped. “What were you thinking, throwing yourself out of a window?!”
“We couldn’t let Keller get away again, not after everything we’d been through. I was responsible for you losing him last time, it was only right I helped you wrap things up properly this time.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could, Freddie interjected.
“Sorry to interrupt, but the job is not finished yet and you’re short on time.
I’ve just issued an anonymous tip that the Tren de Cobra HQ has been targeted by a terrorist organisation.
The area is being evacuated, and authorities are mobilising as we speak.
In your backpack you’ll find enough C-4 to level that building.
I suggest you leave it somewhere safe and get the hell out of there. ”
“Ahh, Relay. You really know the way to my heart,” I purred, grasping Aaron’s hand as we ran back into the building. “Some girls like roses, but not me.”
Aaron and Freddie sighed in stereo, making me laugh.
“I don’t know how you put up with her,” Aaron muttered.
“Me either, honestly.”
“Oh, hush – both of you. I’m a delight and you know it.”
We hurried to the basement, narrowly evading more thugs as they swarmed the building looking for us.
No one in their right mind would ever suspect us heading for the basement.
It was damp and gloomy, but I made quick work of finding the C-4 and choosing a suitable spot for it, right next to one of the main support beams that held the building’s foundations in place.
“C’mon, through there,” I said, pointing to a narrow window.
Aaron stooped, interlinking his hands between his knees.
I placed my boot on them and allowed him to boost me up, groaning with pain as he did so.
I clambered out through the narrow gap, turning on my belly in the dust and reaching back to help Aaron.
He had a good few inches on me in height and thankfully didn’t need too much assistance.
I was exhausted, eyes stinging as sweat got into them, but we couldn’t rest. Not yet. Aaron and I sprinted into the night, ducking down an alleyway just as blue flashing lights turned a corner in the distance.
“Now, Relay!” I shouted, arms pumping at my side as we frantically put as much ground between us as the Tren de Cobra building as we could.
There was a moment of eerie stillness before an explosion rocked the very fibre of my being.
A shockwave rolled through the air, sending both me and Aaron sprawling.
Car alarms blared, windows smashed and a cloud of thick dust swiftly enveloped us.
Detecting the change in air quality, I felt the oxygen mask fitted into my helmet suction itself onto my nose and mouth, filtering the dust as I gasped for breath.
“Head to the pin on your Infolink,” Freddie instructed, a faint bleep ringing in my ear. “Hangman and I will meet you there.”
“Copy,” I groaned, pushing myself up on shaking arms. I glanced across at Aaron as he struggled to sit up, a hand clamped over his side. I pushed up onto my feet, reaching down to help my partner.
Though I couldn’t see much further than a few feet thanks to the dust, I could hear the chaos all around as the authorities descended on the scene of the explosion. It’s a shame they never would get to the bottom of this one. Yet another cold case to go unsolved, I guessed.
Following the map on my Infolink, I led Aaron back to where I had parked up my motorbike the very first day we had arrived.
Though she was covered in dust, she started up with ease, engine purring between my legs as Aaron clambered on behind me.
Unlike the last time we had ridden together, he reached for me of his own accord, grasping my waist and pressing himself into my back.
I sighed, a warm glow taking over my entire body.
I had so many things I wanted to say, and there were so many things still left to resolve. Instead, I kicked the bike into gear and in a cloud of dust, disappeared into the night.