by Loki Renard
“Life is a bitch,” Zora said.
“And so am I.” Anja gave a toothy grin that didn't get anywhere near her eyes. Her pupils were large and dark and still her teeth ground on and on.
“ANJA!”
Though overtly heroic, Savage's sudden booming appearance in the doorway didn't help matters in the slightest. Anja panicked and squeezed the trigger. The bullet emerged from the gun with a ear shattering explosion and made a very short journey from barrel to the wall not three inches away from Zora's neck.
Spurred by the shot, Savage dived like a predatory cat and tackled her off the bed and onto the floor, wresting the gun away from her hand with a harsh twisting motion that made her cry out on pain. Zora heard an audible 'CRACK' as some part of Anja's frail anatomy gave way then the gun skidded uselessly across the floor and came to a rest out in the hallway.
Savage dragged the would be assassin up off the floor with one powerful motion. Anja's hand dangled at a weird angle, which didn't seem to bother her as much as it should have. There were tears streaming down her face, but she showed no awareness of them as she let out a high pitched giggle.
“Fuck Brett, what did you do to her?” Zora felt her stomach rising. The scene was so horribly brutal, so unnecessarily nasty.
“I saved your life,” he said, putting Anja in a pointless joint lock. She wasn't going anywhere. The fight had gone out of her the moment he'd appeared in the room. She hung like a rag doll in his arms, a completely broken woman muttering soft words to herself and crooning in between them. Her mouth had gone slack and what intellect had remained in her eyes had fled her completely.
“Fuck you, I saved my own damn life. You came in here like a complete fucking asshole.” Zora found the anger and outrage that had been missing whilst she was under Anja's gun. “Look what you did to her!”
Anja had slumped further in Savage's arms and was making a keening noise that damn near broke Zora's heart. “Fuck,” Zora swore under her breath, scrambling out of bed. She made her way over to Anja and brushed the woman's hair out of her face. “We're going to get you all fixed up okay sweetie?” She kept her voice light and soft, as if she were comforting a hurt domestic animal.
Anja nodded slowly, confusion and pain registering in her hollowed out gaze.
“Zora...” Savage tried to speak. She wasn't interested in anything he had to say.
“Shut the fuck up Brett.” Zora's voice went back to a growl as she raised her eyes to look at him. “We are going to take her to the medical ward and get that set. And you are going to shut the fuck up or so help me I'll shoot you.”
Savage did not look pleased. He looked completely pissed, but Zora didn't care. He was so far in the wrong that right wouldn't have dared drive down the street with him for fear of being carjacked. “Who do you think you're talking to, Matthews?”
“Someone who gives more of a damn about this woman than you ever did,” she scowled at him. “I don't care what you do to me later. Right now she needs medical attention.”
Savage might have wanted to argue more, but Anja's cries of disoriented pain were growing by the moment. With a muttered curse he hefted her into his arms and carried her in the direction of the medical ward, leaving Zora to follow him with a perfectly thunderous expression.
* * *
An hour later Anja's arm was in a cast and she was resting comfortably under a high dose sedative that had put her into something like a sleep. Zora stood at her bedside, looking down at her battered, broken frame with sympathy. Anja was a crazy bitch for sure, but nobody deserved to be in that much pain or to be treated as less than human.
“I'm sorry,” Savage said, approaching her from the side. “She shouldn't have been able to get to you. They gave her enough tranquilizer to down a horse last night but somehow she broke her bonds and found you.”
“I guess hate is stronger than ketamine,” Zora quipped darkly. She took a sip of the coffee she'd managed to scrounge up in between avoiding Savage and his stupid apologies and making sure Anja didn't get out of hand again. It was bitter and cooling rapidly in spite of the fact she was drinking it black.
Savage's pager buzzed. He checked it, which made her resentful. He could never just leave work alone for five minutes. “Urgent briefing,” he said, placing his hand on her shoulder and squeezing. “Go easy on that coffee, that stuff will give you an ulcer.” He left, reporting for duty like a good robot.
“I don't care.” Zora hadn't taken her eyes off Anja's peaceful face the entire time he'd been speaking. In sleep she looked a little like her old strong self, she looked like she might wake up and go for a run and then go save a few hundred lives by being awesome. Though Zora had never really admitted it to herself, she'd always admired Anja's vitality and beauty. If only she'd found someone to love intensely who loved her the same way. If only her love for Savage hadn't become something so perverted and dark it had twisted her entire being and left her with nothing inside.
“He's not really all that great you know,” she whispered to the unconscious woman. “He thinks he did me a favor by hurting you. But he's just saved me for Tex. He will work us until we die, and if he can get something out of our bodies he'll work us after we're dead too. And now you're mixed up in all.” Zora sighed deeply. “As if things weren't fucked up enough without an emotionally disturbed junkie running around the place.”
“For once I'm inclined to agree with you.”
Zora went tense as Tex's smooth tones slipped around her making her feel slimy and angry. Her fingers tightened on the polystyrene cup, threatening to make it crumble in her hand. She turned around to yell at him, but the bandage across his nose and the bruising around his eyes gave her pause. “What happened to you?”
“Anja happened,” Tex said as he approached the bed and looked down at Anja's senseless form. “She looks peaceful now. A good time to pull the plug.”
Zora frowned with confusion. “What are you talking about? She's not on life support.”
He gazed down at Anja much the same way Zora had, but there was no pity or compassion in his gaze. He spoke like a judge handing down a sentence. “She is vicious, violent and unpredictable. She is a substance addict with no place here. It is time she left.”
“Well she can't go anywhere, she's unconscious...” Zora trailed off as she started to get Tex's gist. “Oh hell no. You're not going to murder her in her sleep.”
“Euthanasia is the kindest option for a mad dog, why not for a mad woman? She can go now, peacefully without ever having known it was done, or she can face a bullet or an IED explosion days or weeks from now,” Tex continued. “She is not Agency material.”
“In that case, stick the needle in me once you're done with her,” Zora said. “Because I will never work for you again.”
“Oh no,” Tex shook his head. “You've already been quite useful. You'll get over Anja. She tried to kill you after all. They call this revenge, some people quite like it.”
“I don't do revenge,” Zora said, not bothering to hide her contempt for him. Any impulse she might have had to feel sorry for the state of his visage had long been buried by his brutal proposal. “I won't get over you running around murdering people just because you got your face messed up, pretty boy.”
That made Tex smile. “Oh Zora, you're quite adorable. Look at you fighting for someone who wants nothing more than to destroy you.”
Zora turned and placed herself between Tex and the bed. “I'm not going to let you murder her.” She glared up at him, hating how much power he had. Even in that moment of supreme tension he looked calm and somehow debonair because he knew damn well he could do whatever he wanted. The law did not apply to him, nobody would care if this dishonorably discharged soldier simply faded away. Knowing that made Zora all the more desperate to fight for Anja.
“We both know you can't stop me. Sooner or later you're going to have to leave her alone,” Tex pointed out pragmatically.
“You,” Zora said with an air of superi
or judgment, “are a massive dick.”
He smirked slightly. “And you my dear, have an undeniable way with words. Now step aside and let me do what needs to be done.” He reached into his pocket and withdrew a syringe of blue liquid. Zora had no idea what it was, but she was pretty sure it would spell the end for Anja if she didn't stop him.
“You are NOT going to murder her!” If words and cursing had been enough she would have been able to stop him, but words were not enough against a man who commanded other men.
“Security please.” Tex spoke into his lapel. The effect was instantaneous. Zora heard the stomping of heavy boots and in less than a minute there were no fewer than five uniformed men stamping into the room. “Please remove Miss Matthews,” he said, giving her a dismissive flicker of a look through his swollen eyelids.
“No!” Zora fought as hard hands descended on her limbs, picking her bodily up from the floor. She managed to slip a grip or two, but for every man she evaded there was another one grabbing her again. Through the tangle of dark bodies she could see Tex uncapping the syringe and moving towards Anja's IV.
A wave of supreme hopelessness washed over her. She was caught so tightly that she could barely move her arms and legs, let alone kick or hit anyone. Anja was going to die all alone and without the opportunity to fight back, she wouldn't even be able to scream before she died.
Zora screamed enough for them both as she was carried away.
Nobody spoke to her. Nobody tried to calm her down. Nobody cared enough to even try. The men carried her flailing body down the hall, dumped her into her room and locked her inside. With no-one to vent her anger on, Zora started throwing everything in the room. She emptied the drawers, kicked holes in the bottom of them, tossed her clothing around and smashed everything that could be smashed. It was a useless, entirely futile display and when it was over she stood panting in the middle of a pile of broken possessions knowing she'd achieved nothing aside from having drained herself of useful energy.
The bed covers were ripped and strewn across the room but the mattress was still relatively intact. She hauled it back onto the base and laid down on it, staring into nothingness. Anja was gone. Just like that she'd been snuffed out, and for what? For wanting to be loved? For not letting herself be pushed around?
“I'm sorry Anja,” Zora whispered to the ceiling. “I'm sorry it ended that way.” She felt as if she wanted to cry, but no tears would come. What good were they anyway in a place where human decency seemed to have been completely erased from general consciousness.
Some time later – it could have been minutes or hours, Zora didn't know, her door opened and Tex stepped into the room. Raising a brow at the chaos but otherwise ignoring it, he seated himself at the end of the bed in the same spot Anja had done earlier that day.
“Get out.” Zora spat the words at him as she sat up and fixed him with a look of pure revulsion. “You're a murderer. I don't want anything to do with you.”
“Don't be a child, Zora,” he said impatiently. “I did what your Savage wasn't man enough to do. He should never have brought her here. He should have never put you through all of this, but he was selfish. He wanted to have both of you, even if it meant putting your life in danger.” Tex paused for a moment to let that sink in before he continued. “I didn't lie to you, I didn't hide what I was doing from you. I didn't make you a pawn in a trade. If you want to hate me for that, be my guest. But don't love him because of his lies.”
“Oh fuck!” Zora screamed from sheer frustration. Trying to explain emotion to Tex was like trying to explain color to a blind man, he just had no receptors for it. “I don't love him because of his lies! I love him because he is more human than you could ever be. He didn't kill Anja because he didn't want to kill her. He wanted to rehabilitate her.”
Tex gave her a slightly perplexed look, as if he didn't understand her line of argument. “This isn't a wildlife rescue. We don't take in ducks with head injuries and puppies with broken legs.”
Zora made a sound of disgust and laid back, refusing to look at him. “Go away Tex. Go away before I hurt you as much as you've hurt me and my friends.”
He nodded without displaying any emotion and stood up. “You know what's really hurting you most about all of this?” He caught her eye just as he was heading out the door. “Deep down you know that not only am I right, but I did what was best for you – and for your Savage too.”
“You wouldn't know what was best for a person if you fell into a vat of it. You're sick. You're more broken than she was. I hate you.” Zora's voice rose to a shriek as her face grew a deeper shade of rage red. “I HATE YOU!”
“No need to be so dramatic, Miss Matthews,” Tex said dismissively. “It's not good for you to upset yourself so much.”
There was no telling what would have happened if he hadn't have left the room then, but Zora pelted the door he'd departed through with every object she could get her hands on until her arms and hands were too tired to grip or throw anymore.
Chapter Sixteen
“Tex killed someone today.”
Thanks to Zora's meltdown rumors surrounding Anja's death were everywhere. Savage heard them the moment he left the briefing that had turned out to be nothing more than an hour of vague blathering about instability in the Middle East.
“The crazy new one. She's dead.”
As he walked through the halls the whispers surrounded him on all sides. Some were horrified, most were ghoulishly fascinated by the tale that had spread like wildfire through the rank and file.
“The hot blonde? He put her down like a dog.”
Savage's jaw tightened as he struggled to maintain some kind of control. It could just be rumor. It could be nothing to worry about. He would mourn when he heard the news from the horse's mouth. He had but one question for Tex and he asked it in the gardens where he found the man sitting at a wrought iron table and sipping a fruit juice with a small purple umbrella in it as if he didn't have a care in the world. A neat fedora shielded his face from the sun and partially hid the mess that was his eyes and nose from view.
Savage seated himself across from his superior and asked the question he did not want to ask and yet had to ask. “Is it true?”
There was silence for a moment as Tex took a long slurp and finished his beverage. “I did what had to be done. She would have shot Zora eventually.” Tex smiled a little as he met Savage's tortured gaze. “Don't worry, she went peacefully.”
Savage swallowed his emotion, gritting out words between teeth so tightly clenched they were beginning to hurt. “You called me away so I could not protect her.”
“Yes.” Tex didn't bother denying the accusation. “Rest assured, Zora's tantrum was enough for the both of you, but at least she could be restrained without harming anyone.” Tex waved a hand in his direction. “I would have allowed you to be there but no doubt you would have made the situation far more dangerous than it had to be.”
Savage was off balance. He'd not for a moment considered the possibility that Tex would actually take it upon himself to euthanize a human being. He hadn't seemed like he had the balls. Putting aside Anja's demise for a moment, he asked after the other victim of the crime. “Zora,” he said. “Why did you do it in front of her like that?”
Tex snorted. “I didn't do it in front of her. I did let her know what was going to happen and when she became too hysterical I had her removed.”
Running a hand through his hair, Savage took a deep breath to keep control of himself. What he was hearing was so surreal and so evil he couldn't quite bring himself to believe it. “Why let her know at all? She didn't need to be a party to it.”
“I disagree. I think you have coddled her and separated her from the reality of consequences too long. She thought death was an easy option. She was starting to think it might be better than living. I doubt she thinks that now.”
“Murder as a means of therapy? You're sick.”
Tex's eyes were empty as he looked at Savage,
two portals into a soul that wasn't there. “I'm a practical man, Mr Savage. You had to have known what would happen when you brought Anja to me. You know who and what I am. If I used Anja's end as a teaching moment at least it meant her death was not in vain.”
Savage's anger threatened to boil over. Such was the rage he felt that it was almost impossible to contain it in the confines of his body. It was a mistake to have ever bargained with Tex. He had truly made a deal with the devil, selling both his and Zora's souls for a chance at freedom that would never come. His hand twitched near his sidearm. He'd never wanted to shoot any man so badly in his entire life.
Tex saw the movement. “Easy Mr Savage. You don't want to do something that will put your precious Zora in danger.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“It means that if anything happens to me I have a clause in my final instructions that deals directly and explicitly with Miss Matthews. It's not pleasant.”
Savage breathed deeply, finding his focus. “You are making an enemy of me, Tex.”
“I'm not actually. As I told your petulant little girlfriend, I did you both a favor. I removed a threat to her life and your relationship.” He gave Savage a condescending look. “It's too much to ask for you to express any gratitude for that of course, you're too busy wrapped up in useless emotion.”
“You expect me to thank you for killing someone who served loyally under me for over a decade?”
“I expect you to find some measure of logic in that thick head of yours.” Tex no longer hid his disdain. “She was in the sort of mental anguish people don't recover from. She was broken. I put her out of her misery and in doing so kept the woman you love safe.”
“Zora and I don't need your help keeping ourselves safe.”
Tex laughed. “Oh but Mr Savage, you very much do. Zora is still an enemy of the state is she not? And she has effectively sold state secrets since her escape from military prison. Without my protection and influence she would be dragged off to a black location and never be seen again and you'd be next.” He sat forward, lacing his hands together. “So what I suggest, Mr Savage, is that you do as you are told and encourage Zora to do the same. My patience for dealing with the ongoing drama you two manage to produce is wearing thin.”
