Chapter Three
At first, Bane thought he’d find a body somewhere close and when he didn’t, he followed the blood stains. Now he noticed the drag marks and again knelt in the dirt to study them. They looked like heels being dragged by another person.
James joined him and after he studied the marks, he offered, “Well, someone survived the copter wreck. They can’t be that far ahead of us.”
Bane raised his head to glare at him. “We have to find them before the shooters get here. Hopefully both men are still alive. Maybe they know who attacked them.”
James shook his head as he scoffed. “Let’s just find them first, we can always worry about the who later.”
Bane rushed to his feet and moved in close to seethe at him, “We have to find them before those idiots do and finish them off. I’m not going to go home and tell Sarah her brother is dead because I didn’t get to him in time.”
James nodded then reached up to pry Bane’s painful grip from his arm. “I hear ya, brother. I don’t wanna have to face her or Shay’s wife with that news either. Let’s just find him, ok?”
They took off again and this time they followed the blood trail.
Then Bane caught the sight of work boots under a large bunch of scrub.
When he parted the vegetation he saw Shay lying in the dirt.
Half his face was covered in blood and he looked unconscious.
Blood was splattered all over his clothing and his hand was all torn up.
He paused as he wondered if the man was alive.
“Damn, is he breathing?” James asked in a low voice.
When he checked the side of Shay’s neck for his jugular vein, Bane felt a slow and steady heartbeat. He looked up at James and nodded. “He’s alive, for now anyway.”
“But where the hell is Stone?” James growled as he looked up and tried to spot any sign of him from where he stood.
Bane got to his feet to look around as well. “I have no idea but we need to find him and soon.”
Just then, a bullet hit the tree next to Bane. As a natural reflex, he turned and fired a shot back.
They heard a thud.
Bane snapped his head over and snarled at James. “You stay here with him.” Then he turned and followed the direction his shot went.
A small distance away he found out what he had brought down and it wasn’t a deer. He stared at a rather large man lying on the ground and he was still alive.
Bane’s bullet had hit his chest. Blood pooled under him, running brightly across his shirt. The man still held his gun at his side but he didn’t raise it to a firing position.
Bane brought his rifle up to his shoulder and approached the man.
The downed man groaned weakly. “You fucking prick.” He snarled at Bane. “What the hell did you do to me? I can’t move at all.”
Bane smiled knowingly. He shrugged then commented, “Best guess is that my bullet hit its mark and nicked your spinal cord. It won’t kill you right away but you’ll bleed out right quick. In fact, you’re doing just that.”
“Finish me then.” He growled.
Bane shook his head. “Tell me who you are first.”
“Go fuck yourself. I ain’t telling you shit.”
Bane shrugged. “It doesn't matter to me, one way or the other. But just so you know, I have the man who hired you,” he paused then checked his watch. “And he’s about to become nothing more than a stain on the wall.”
The man grimaced then demanded, “How is that possible?”
Bane sat back on his heels then leaned against the tree.
“It wasn’t hard. I have a special room that I put him in, along with his sidekick.
But before I left, I turned on a mechanism.
It started the special feature that room was devised to do.
But as we wait to see how long it actually takes for you to bleed out, I figure I can tell you what makes that room so special.
You see, the north wall is a loadbearing wall, so it stands there proud and still.
But the south wall isn’t loadbearing so it moves when I hit a stitch.
When the south wall moves, it cuts the dimension of the room as it slowly joins with the north wall.
” He shrugged. “Hopefully, there is nothing in that room at the time. Otherwise, it’s going to be caught between the walls and let me tell you those walls are heavy duty steel and anything caught between them is destroyed.
They should begin to understand what’s going to happen to them just about now.
But they have to be asking themselves just how close the southern wall is going to get before it stops and soon they will begin to wonder if they are going to live when the jail door is finally opened again. ”
The other man paled and his body began to tremble. “You would really do that to someone? Who the hell are you, man?”
Bane leaned a little closer and whispered, “Have you ever heard of Bane Jessin?”
The man’s face went grey as he studied him carefully. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I’m protecting family. One of the men in that copter you guys shot down is my brother-in-law,” Bane explained as he referred to Stone. He crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes. He glared at the dying man. “So, tell me who you are and who hired you?”
The other man shook his head. “I can’t tell you that.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Bane asked. “Either way, you’re a dead man and so are the men who hired you.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t make a difference to me either way. Jasper Owens and Charlie Midland are both going to be dead very soon. Probably right behind you, fool.”
The other man groaned as he tried to move his body and found he couldn’t.
“You think one of those two losers hired us?” he whispered as he swallowed hard.
“You’re behind the times, man. Owens might have wanted to hire us but we don’t work on commission brother, we work for cold hard cash and Owens doesn’t have any of that yet.
Yeah, he’s working on it but he ain’t there yet.
” Then he slowly turned his wrist and showed Bane a tattoo.
“If you are the real Bane, you’ll know what this symbol means.
” He paused as he grew weaker. “You’ll also know you can’t stop us.
You won’t dare go after our leader, he’s too well protected.
” Then he closed his eyes and took his last breath.
Bane watched dispassionately as the man died. He didn’t deserve any prayer, any remorse. The man had cold eyes and he was a pro-hitter. Bane had been the same, so he wouldn’t have expected someone to pray over his corpse either.
Bane got up and went back to James. “Come on, we have to find Stone and the others. Then get the hell out of these woods. And we don’t have time to argue about it either.”