by mike Evans
Shaun played his part trying to straighten up and yelling, “You can’t treat me like this, I have rights damn it, and you can’t call me names either that's part of the...”
The guard pushed the man backwards, looked at ‘Gordy’ and said, “Well agent, do you see anything going on here that is against the law, or do we look like we are on the up and up here?”
Gabriel took a step forward towards the two and said, “You know, to tell you the truth officer, I'm having a really hard time remembering if he had a broken leg when we picked him up or if it was during his lock up that he did that to himself. Christ, I don’t know how we missed it, but does it ever look severe. You got a broom closet around here that I can take him to and have a conversation about things?”
The guard started looking uneasy at this. He knew that they could only do so much and really get away with it. “You know I’d have to say that we might want to pass on that sir, but if he gets what's coming to him, a little piss ant like this isn’t going to last all that long inside of a prison lock up, if you know what I mean. And if he does, well we both know that he is was too damn pretty and small to let him just go day to day without someone making sure his asshole isn’t the size it was on the day that he came in.”
Shaun yelled over the two of them, “You can’t treat me like this, I'm going to talk, and I’m going to tell the media. You aren’t able to intimidate me, damn it.”
Gabriel got within an inch of Shaun’s face and the man could no longer tell if he was acting or if he was deadly serious. Gabriel whispered, “I think that you are far past being intimidated. If I was you, I would just shut the fuck up and pray that the FBI does something on their end to fuck up. I know that what you and I did was polished to a shine and there isn't anything for your stupid lawyer to try and say that I messed up. If you bring up anything about tonight and what you claim happened, just remember there is an entrance to that jail and I can get in. I can get in and not have any records showing that I was ever there. Is that something that you are interested in having happen, or would you like to try and spend your days not getting raped and still be alive?”
Shaun said, “Is there a way that I live out my days and I don’t have to worry about being someone’s boy toy?”
Gabriel stepped forward, shaking his head no. “You give me enough information by the time that we get to the FBI office, I can say with a straight face that you were smart enough to tell me something that we didn’t know beforehand. If you can do that, then I’ll do my absolute best so you don’t have to worry about being ass candy in jail.”
“Ass candy, is that an agent’s term?”
Gabriel shook his head, looked at the guard and said, “Christ even when you have them dead to rights they still couldn’t get any stupider could they?”
The guard shook his head in agreement and yelled to one of his men to come and watch the prisoner. Gabriel hobbled to a chair nearby and waited a few short minutes before he saw a plain sedan pull up. A man got out and ran around the back and opened the rear door. The guard that had been standing watch over an extremely nervous looking Shaun took a firm grip of his bicep and started pushing Shaun towards the door. Gabriel got up from the seat and began hobbling towards the man, letting him really play the crutch card. He tried to focus on one thing, as he knew that if he didn’t, he was probably going to start getting the spins. It was everything he had in his control to not start puking right there. It made him think even more that there was a serious head wound that he was going to have to deal with for the near future. Gabriel thought that wherever he was going, hopefully the plane had a bed or couch as he was going to happily accept any offer to get some shut eye that came his way.
Gabriel made it to the driver's seat and thanked the men who took his crutch and put it in the passenger’s seat for him. Gabriel checked the rearview mirror and saw that the look of fear was gone and was replaced with a more excited and hopeful grin from Phelps. Phelps whispered, “Holy shit, you crazy son of a bitch! You fucking did it, God damn it you are good, damn good! Can I hire you? Christ I think I would like to keep you around for a while.”
“No but you can sure as hell drive this thing the minute that we get out of visual range,” Gabriel advised.
“So that means I'm going to lose these lovely handcuffs?”
“Not unless you want to keep them on Shaun?”
“No, no, no that is quite fine; you go ahead and take these damn things off as soon as you can please.”
Gabriel rolled down the long drive and pulled onto the open road and drove the long way around and out of sight before finding an alternate path to the parking spot where he had left the car he’d driven earlier. He was starting to have more and more issues remembering things and figured it best that he let Phelps drive the car.
Gabriel found the vehicle and drove around the parking ramp one more time, making sure that by some chance there wasn’t anything going on out of the ordinary. When he deemed it safe, he parked, got Phelps out and removed the handcuffs. “Is this your car? Can we can take this one and leave this cop car here, and do some cloak and dagger shit?” Phelps asked with excitement.
Gabriel just nodded as he went around to the back of the car and found the spare set of keys and popped the trunk. He removed both men’s pistols and shrugged out of the suit coat that just barely fit, and tossed it all into the trunk. Phelps walked around to see what he was doing and caught view of the small armory at his disposal. He whistled and said, “Holy shit kid, you're a dangerous son of a bitch aren't you?”
Gabriel looked at him but did not answer. He pulled out his working rig and set it aside, ready to be put on. He would feel more comfortable having something more familiar available. He went through his clothes and found a pair of jeans and a shirt. He could finally get out of the pants that he’d been wearing for more than a full day. Gabriel stripped out of the pants and shirt and started to put on the jeans. The trunk light was the only light illuminated his body. Phelps bent forward a little and looked as if he had remorse for the man and stated, “Good God son, what the hell happened to you? I mean fuck, you are black and blue from the waist up. Hell, I take that back, your legs don't look all that much better, what happened to you?”
“It’s honestly a pretty long story, one that I don’t care to get into while I'm naked in the middle of nowhere, give me a few minutes will ya and I’ll go from there.”
Phelps realized that yes the man was standing in the parking lot wearing in nothing but a pair of tight fitting boxers, so he went around the side of the car and asked over the trunk lid, “Hey since you got all those pistols and guns, you think there is any chance that I can get one of them from you?”
“Do you know how to use one Phelps?”
He smiled and said, “You just point the trigger and pull right?”
“Do you just aim the car and push the gas pedal, or do you think there is a reason that there are classes for it?”
“Good point. I was just thinking if we run into any trouble that might be something handy to have on hand, if you know what I mean?”
Gabriel slammed the trunk down and set his rig atop the lid and said, “Well Phelps, lucky for you that you have me because that is all you will ever need. You better hire yourself someone capable though if you plan on running for the rest of your life. There’s a damn good chance that people will find out you escaped and that you are on the run. If you really did piss off people and steal from them, they are not just going to want their money back. They are going to want your fucking head on a plate.”
“You know, I could make you a very rich man sir, you sure you couldn’t stick around for a while, at least while you heal and make sure that there isn’t any threat against myself that I'm missing? It’d really be a shame if I went through all this and ended up getting shot in the back of the head, wouldn't it?”
Gabriel nodded and replied, “Yes, healing wouldn’t be a horrible thing. Let’s see how today goes and we can play it by ear.
I'm not making any promises. I really do have prior engagements that are on hold because of all of this today. I had planned on doing something and being on a plane, a plane to a specific destination. I need to make a call actually, as soon as we get safe and clear. I can’t say that I'm overly confident about being this close to any CIA related building, what I did today is going to put me on a list, one that I won’t get off of until they put me in the ground.”
“So you are saying picking someone that is wanted for death by the CIA couldn’t be a better choice to protect me right?”
“Was that a joke Shaun?”
“Yes, yes it was, and a bad one.”
Gabriel nodded while sliding the holster rigs over his body and easing a hooded jacket over that. “Come on, you drive, let’s get out of here. They are going to be losing their shit here soon over what happened there. Where do we need to go so that you can get us on a plane?”
Phelps smiled and said, “I have the black card sir, all I need to do is tell them what state I am in and they will do absolutely everything they can to accommodate me and my company.”
“You aren't going to raise any red flags by calling in with your company are you? If there’s a group of the CIA waiting for us in full SWAT we are going to have issues.”
“No, this company isn’t going to be an issue here. They are more concerned with the great American dollar than the laws of America. We need to call them soon though so we can have a plane on the way.”
“I need to make one phone call first and then we can make your call on the way. It isn’t going to take very long, I'm not a big talker on the phone.
Shaun smiled, and then said, “Yes, you know I do believe you. What I want to do won’t take too long either. You go ahead and go first by all means.”
Chapter
Six
Forsyth was cruising into foreign airspace, he was hoping for both a sympathetic and English speaking control tower to communicate with as they got closer to their destination. He looked at Mikey, who was sitting on his knees and staring at the end of the ocean and the beginning of the continent. Forsyth smiled for a second and wondered what must be going through the kid's mind. His mother and father weren’t here and when he woke up, he was in the cockpit of a luxury jet capable of flying from one continent to another. “You ever see anything like that before Mikey? You ever fly in anything this big before buddy?”
Mikey put his small palms up on the window and pressed his chubby face to it. “No sir Mr. Forsyth, I haven’t ever been anywhere like this before. This is a cool plane. I bet we are going a million miles an hour aren’t we?”
Forsyth stared at the kid and was glad that he wasn’t asking about his parents. “You know how fast we are going Mikey…..two million miles per hour, can you believe that buddy?”
Mikey jumped up and down in his seat at hearing this. “No way, can it go faster than that sir?
Forsyth tickled the boy on his ribs and said, “No, that’s about the limit of it son. We can’t go too much faster or we would launch ourselves into outer space and I don’t have my air tanks in here so we can breathe. We better just stay at this speed.”
Mikey gave him a thumbs up and nodded. “Can I ask ya a question sir?”
“You can just call me Uncle David if you want. I don’t think that your parents would have any issues with that kid.”
“You aren’t my uncle Mr. Forsyth. Are my mommy and daddy meeting us wherever we are going?”
“You know I can’t answer that just yet. Your dad said that we need to hang out together for a while and he would meet us here. Do you think you might like to see Paris, France with me for a while? I promise that it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for you, most kids would die to come here and see all the sights.”
Mikey shook his head no with fear “I don't wanna die Mr. Forsyth, I don’t wanna die!”
“It’s just another way of saying things kid. You aren’t really going to die, it’s just an expression. Don’t worry about it. I promise I'm not going to let anything happen to you as long as you are with me. You and I are gonna be buddies, I’m pretty sure about it, is that cool?”
Mikey gave him another thumbs up then collapsed back into his seat. “Are we gonna be able to get some food when we get to Paris? Because I'm starving. They got food there, right?”
“No, it’s ‘they have food there’, not ‘got food there’. You already sound American enough for a thousand kids.”
“So they got food there then?”
Forsyth choked on a laugh and nodded his head trying to correct him said. “Yeah they have good food there. I heard they have some great food. I think that we won’t have any problems finding you something to eat. We better try and start off with something sweet. There are quite a few people that want to be chefs that come here to learn just how to make desserts and sauces and all kinds of food that is going to make your belly absolutely happy kiddo.” Mikey seemed content with that answer.
Forsyth radioed in to land, letting the aircraft controller know that they were bringing the plane down and that they were going to need a private hangar to store it. When he told them he needed to drop the plane off, they asked him for the tail registration numbers. He read them off to the tower and when they landed they had a man on the ground waiting for him, directing to where he needed to go. Forsyth was somewhat nervous about the idea of it.
As he followed the truck across the runway, the satellite phone that he had been waiting impatiently for to go off rang. He snatched it, hitting the answer button. “Hey, is that you kid? Are you ok? Did you do what you needed to?”
Gabriel said, “Yeah it’s me and that’s a complicated answer. I got what I needed to done, but was temporarily detained.”
Forsyth wanted to get up and pace, he could feel a story that he did not want to hear coming his way. “What do you mean detained, the Gabriel I knew didn’t get detained.”
“It was out of my control this time. My head wasn't into it like the old days; believe it or not, I had some serious shit going on today that fucked up my head something fierce. I am sure that you can see that from my point of view right?”
Forsyth thought that as much love as he had in and out of his bed in his lifetime, it was days like this that being a forever bachelor did not break his heart. “Yeah Gabriel I can see what you are talking about. Are you gonna be meeting us over here soon then?”
“If you are ok with the kid, I have a ride set up and am going to detour so that I can get out of prosecuting lands. I will be there as soon as possible though, where are you going to stay at? Where are you landing?”
“We just landed in Paris. We will be here until you can arrive. I am hoping that you won’t be detained any further.”
“I would say that after the last run around, there isn’t going to be any more people trying to detain us. They are going to just put a bullet in my head, or at the least make that what they are trying to do.”
“You must be in some pretty deep shit, huh?”
Mikey said, “Oh no, you said the S word. Oh, you are gonna get in trouble.”
“Watch your mouth around the kid will ya, and no hookers or trouble elsewhere, you don’t booze it up either. Pretty much anything you would rather do besides eating and shitting from normal, don’t do it. You got my one and only and he needs to stay safe. There shouldn’t be any confusion about that,” Gabriel instructed.
“No, there isn’t any. I know exactly how important he is to you. I won’t let anything happen to him if I can help it.”
“You see to it that nothing happens to him regardless of if you are able to stop it or not. If something doesn’t go as planned, you don’t do anything short of spending every cent I put into those accounts to fix it. Do you understand me?”
“Crystal clear kid. You make sure when you are almost here that you call ahead so that that we can be ready to pick you up. I assume with the money you got you’ll be flying in on your own plane.”
“I haven’t
gotten that far. Let me talk to Mikey. Keep taking good care of him. He’s all I got left.”
“You got me kid, don't forget that. I'm going to do everything in my powers to keep him safe. I’ll treat him like he is my own, I promise you that.”
He handed the phone to Mikey who said, “Hello, who is this?”
Gabriel bit on his lip, holding back tears for a moment. He wasn't sure if he would ever hear his child’s voice again. He definitely didn’t think that there’d be an opportunity to see him again after the rifle had struck him upside the back of the head. As he went down to the ground, his thoughts before blacking out were of Mikey and Addy.
Gabriel said, “Hey...hey buddy it’s me, Dad.”
“Oh hi Daddy, I thought that he was talking to someone named Gabriel. Are you with someone else?”
“You know what, when you get older we will be able to have a conversation about everything that is going on, that will probably include that Gabriel man.”
“Is he a good guy Dad?”
“It depends on how you treat others buddy, but look, I just wanted to tell you that I love you. I probably won’t be talking to you for a while and you are going to have to hang out with Forsyth for a little bit longer. Do you think that you’ll be able to handle that for me Mikey?”
“Yep, he’s got this plane and it is going two million miles per hour Daddy. He said people come here to be a chef and that they got the best food. And guess what Dad guess what?!”
“What buddy?”
“We are going to start with dessert, can you believe that, isn’t that cool!”
“Yeah that is crazy, sounds like he’s going to be a whole bunch of fun to hang out with.”
“He said he’d show me all around this place. There is a giant tower too Dad. Wow, I wonder if we can go on top of it?”
“That is the Eiffel Tower and yes, you can. You will need to see if that is part of his tour.”
