Moment of Truth

by Emrys Apollo

  “You bastard!” Jody yelled, his face close to Desmond’s. Desmond tried to push him off but his grip was too tight. “You told me you didn’t know!”

  “Jody, what are you-?”

  “I don’t care why you won’t tell Henson and the others but you be fucking straight with me! Where are they?” Jody growled. Desmond swallowed dryly.

  “I don’t-”

  “Yes you do!” Jody screamed, shoving Desmond back into the bed. He threw the business card at him for good measure. “Now you fucking tell me or I’m going to go and get Henson and tell him you just remembered something.” Jody threatened, pointing at the door. Desmond knew not to push it; he’d been in Jody’s place. Was in Jody’s place; he knew at that moment in time Jody would do anything if it meant getting his partner back faster. Desmond let out a deep breath.

  “This stays between us.” Desmond warned. Jody scoffed at him.

  “You’re a bastard.”

  “I wasn’t going to just sit on this information!” Desmond pressed. “I’m not heartless.”

  “Where are they then?” Jody bit. Desmond glanced at the door.

  “You have to promise me that you won’t tell Henson or Bowse or anyone.” Desmond said, sitting forward. Jody folded his arms tightly. “I have a plan and you have to promise you’ll work to my plan.”

  “Do I actually get told the details of this plan or are you just going to go behind my back?” Jody snapped. Desmond held his hands up innocently.

  “I’ll tell you everything, so long as it stays between us and you follow my orders. I say come you come, I say fall behind you fall behind, I say get the fuck out of there and leave me, you do just that, deal?”

  “Sounds like I won’t be fully clued in on this plan.” Jody said with narrow eyes.

  “Look, I was wrong, I can’t do this on my own and I need you on this. I need someone I can rely on to put their life on the line if needs be. I know I would for Antony and I’m confident you would for Stuart.”

  “What kind of a question is that, of course I would.” Jody sent aggressively. Desmond nodded his head, holding out his hand.

  “You accept my terms?” Jody eyed him suspiciously.

  “You’ll tell me everything?”

  “Of course.”

  “Whenever I ask you to tell me everything?”

  “You have my word.” Jody looked deep into Desmond’s eyes but it didn’t appear that Desmond was hiding anything. Exasperating a little, Jody clutched Desmond’s hand, shaking it in a deal. “Alright, I need you to go to my house, go into the shed and open up the boot of the Chevrolet. You’ll find a black bag in there. I’m going to need that. If you open the green tool cupboard that’s beside the Chevrolet you should find a second bag that you can use. Get them both and bring them back here in three hours.”

  “What’s happening in three hours?” Jody asked, letting go of Desmond’s hand. Desmond sat up, fighting through the pain as he swung his legs off the bed and pushed to his feet. Leaning on Jody’s shoulder for support, he looked across at his colleague.

  “In three hours you’re helping break me out of here, and tonight we’re going to get Antony and Stuart back.”

  CHAPTER 9

  The wind whipped through the trees, sending the foliage dancing in the darkening night. A whistle broke through the branches, sharing secrets with the surrounding forest that only those in ear shot would hear. The moment the sounds cut into the eerie night it was distorted by the leaves, leaving a scrambled code for passers-by to try and unravel. Each movement was cast into the spotlight by the full moon that beamed from the sky, picking up anything that tried to hide in the shadows.

  Desmond looked up at the cloudless night, eyes locked on the beacon shinning down on him. It felt incriminating; like it was displaying everything he had planned for the evening. It made him feel like it was all futile, as if the well thought out plan Jody and he had made three hours earlier was going to blow up in their face. He shook his head, pushing away from the window and turning his back on the judging moon.

  He had to try. Stuart’s life could be on the line, let alone Antony’s.

  Moving back towards the hospital bed he was supposed to be resting in, Desmond ignored the twinge of pain that shot down his side. He was going to have to get used to working around that if he was about to go into a rescue mission. Desmond gingerly sat on the side of the bed, reaching his hand to the underside of the frame and feeling around until his hands landed on the fabric he was searching for. Yes, his clothes from the night he was brought into hospital were ruined, but they were his best shot of getting out of here. If he set a foot out of his room wearing his hospital gown there was no way he’d get passed the corridor door.

  Desmond was pulling his t-shirt slowly over his head when it happened. For a moment, Desmond froze, confused by the sudden bright light that was shinning into his room. But in the moment it had appeared, it was gone again. Pulling the torn and dirty shirt down his torso, Desmond took a deep breath.

  That was his cue.

  He moved back to the window, waiting for Jody to send the second flash. He was half surprised not to be able to see Jody due to the floodlight in the sky, but the man was good at his job. He knew how to be invisible in a room full of light. When the third flash came, Desmond unlatched the window, pushing it as far back as it would go so a freezing breeze wrapped around his body like it was clutching onto him, holding him in the room. He shook it off, dragging his leather jacket over his aching body.

  He waited. Holding his breath.

  The minute the power flickered off, Desmond leapt for the window, slamming it shut. Whilst it was still shaking in its frame, he dashed across the room and out into the corridor. He just had time to check he had everything he needed before the power was back on.

  Jody had only disabled the power in Desmond’s area of the hospital, making sure that none of the patients in critical conditions were affected by their breakout mission. It was a small and short enough blip in the power supply that it could take the hospital hours to realize it had even happened. But Desmond wasn’t about to hang around and wait to find out.

  He kept his head low, moving through the corridor quickly until he found the elevators. When the door opened as he arrived, he knew that it was Jody’s hand pulling the strings. He didn’t even have to hit the button for his floor; the doors closed just after he had crossed the threshold. Smirking, he picked up the cap that was on the floor, pushing the earpiece into his ear and he pushed the hat low over his eyes.

  “Any suspicions?” Desmond asked, turning his collar up against his neck.

  “If Henson knew you had all this stuff…” Jody muttered, his voice in Desmond’s ear, as Desmond tore the hospital band off his wrist.

  “Boys need their toys.” Desmond shrugged.

  “Yeah, but your collection is something else.”

  “Never know when I’m going to need to go off the radar.” Desmond muttered as the doors opened. His eyes scanned the room. No one seemed to be waiting for him. “What alert are we on?”

  “Nothing abnormal as of yet. You’ve got about an hour and a half before nurse realizes you’re not in your bed like a good boy.”

  “Great.” Desmond nodded, shoving his wristband in his pocket as he headed for the main entrance. No one seemed to bat an eyelid, and if they did Desmond was moving through the hospital much too fast to notice them. “What ride?”

  “Ram 1500 Classic.”

  “Fuck me. Couldn’t you have got something better? I have a Chevrolet in my garage.”

  “I was going for inconspicuous.” Jody tutted. He flashed the lights as Desmond wandered straight passed him.

  “I have a whole garage of trucks.”

  “That Henson and MI6 know and are probably tracing.” Ending the transmission as Desmond got in the truck, Jody held his hand up to prevent Desmond saying anything else. “I didn’t hire it. Paid for in cash from a dump. Not traceable.” He threw Desmond’s bag at h
im. “Lucky it runs, to be honest.”

  “Just drive.” Desmond muttered, pulling his shirt off and pulling the change of clothes from the bag Jody had handed to him. Jody barely battered an eyelid as Desmond undressed beside him, keeping his eyes on the road. They had seen each other in much more compromising positions in the past.

  Jody’ attention was fully on the road as Desmond rifled through the bag he had been handed. Jody didn’t really know what was in it; he’d brought Desmond the bag from the location the other man had described. Desmond looked fairly content as he pulled out each gun, checking it over and loading some ammunition before the weapon disappeared to some concealed part of his outfit. They had both completed missions of this nature many times in the past it was almost normal.

  The only thing that caught Jody’s attention was when Desmond pulled out a Blackberry from his bag, powering it up and checking something on it. The man could barely believe it.

  “How many of those bloody things do you have?” Jody gasped, startling Desmond with a burst of sound in what had been a silent journey to that point.

  “What?”

  “Jesus, Desmond, do all the captives we’re pursuing give you phones?” Desmond’s eyes slid from Jody to the phone in his hand; his fingers still poised above the keys.

  “Says the guy who gave up doing this journey in a Chevrolet to buy an off-the-radar Peugeot?”

  “That’s different.”

  “How so?”

  “I didn’t have this stowed away for a rainy day.”

  “Well, when your friends have a habit of surveying you and your partner sometimes you have to make sure you’re completely off the radar.” Desmond muttered, his eyes back on the Blackberry. He pulled the phone that Antony’s captive had given him out of his pocket and compared something on the two screens.

  Jody bit his tongue. He knew what Desmond was referencing. He also knew it was something that Desmond would never forgive him for. Jody had just been following orders, but Desmond refused to see it like that. He gripped the steering wheel a little tighter as he forced himself passed Desmond’s jive. A jive that Desmond knew would kick up a reaction in Jody.

  “Where is it I’m heading?”

  “Dover. We’ve got a crossing on the Eurotunnel.”

  “We’re going to France?” Jody frowned. Desmond shook his head once.

  “Colloto.” He said, holding up the business card Antony had left as a clue for him. A small smirk hit Desmond’s lips as he saw the realization that they would be stuck in this truck for a very long time hit Jody’s face. “Bet you wish you had brought a Chevrolet now.”

  - - -

  They were paid for everything by cash so that they were as difficult to trace as possible. However this meant their spend was highly restricted, so the nineteen hours journey (not including the hours lost due to changing time zones) did not fly past as quickly as they would have hoped. They had stints in the driving seat, but even so they were both agitated and done with the truck when they finally crossed into Colloto. Desmond was at the wheel as he drove down the twisty Spanish streets. The sun was beginning to disappear behind the horizon, and Jody could think of nothing but a decent bed.

  The man frowned across at Desmond as the truck came to a stop in the middle of the road. The only time they had stopped thus far was to fuel up. Glancing out the window, Jody saw no reason for the impromptu pause, but Desmond’s eyes were locked on what looked like a derelict, run down building that was falling apart at the seams.

  “Did the truck stop?” Jody asked; it had been making a horrid rattling sound for the last four hours. His ears still rang with the noise even though it had finally stopped.

  “No.” Desmond said, confirming Jody’s fears. The man swallowed.

  “We’re here then.” Jody lent towards Desmond so he could get a better look at the building that Desmond was looking at. It was clear that no one had been in there or working there for years, maybe decades. The windows were all smashed in with some of the brickwork having fallen away at the top. The building looked tired and done; as if too much movement near it would cause the whole thing to crumble into dust. Jody’s eyes flicked to the business card clue that was in the cup holder by the gearstick, looking like it could have never had any association with the building they were parked outside of. He picked up the card. “This hotel is in France.” Jody commented. Desmond nodded.

  “I know.”

  “So why are we parked outside this crummy building if the hotel we want is in France?”

  “Because we don’t want that hotel. Henson told us that they’d torn that place apart once the business card was found. These guys wouldn’t be so stupid to keep Antony somewhere so high profile.” Desmond turned to Jody. “It would have to be discreet, out of the public eye. Somewhere where you could bring someone in at the dead of night and no one would have any clue. Somewhere you could leave and go back to without raising suspicions. Somewhere you could let off a gunshot and no one would be alerted.” His eyes returned to the broken building beside them. “He’s here. This is where they’re being kept.”

  “How does that business card relate to this… What even was it?”

  “It was a hotel.” Desmond said, a small wisp of a smile on his lips. “It was Antony’s dream. He was going to quit driving trucks and revamp this place, bring it back to its former glory. His sister and he used to come here when they were kids and an old man would tell them about the glory days. He said he wanted to recreate that.”

  “And the business card?”

  “He told me on the night we met. We met at that hotel and he knew it would direct me to this.” Silence filtered between the pair of them as Desmond looked wishfully up at the hotel and Jody cocked an eyebrow at the other man.

  “That is very specific.” Jody said. Desmond frowned at him. “You think he just told them that information?”

  “I don’t know,.”

  “Well how else would they get this address, this location? Only he would have been able to give it to them.”

  “Why does it matter how they got it? All that matters is that Antony, and Stuart , are here. And now we’re going to get them back.”

  “. Something doesn’t feel right about this.” Jody voiced. Desmond clenched his jaw. “Of all the locations, this one? The one he secretly told you about the night you met? How did he know that business card would spark this location?”

  “Because he knows me. And I know him. This is where they are.”

  “If they are here there is only one reason. I sincerely hope they’re not.”

  “Why have you come all this way to hope I’m wrong?” Desmond barked, anger surging through him.

  “Desmond, if they are here that means Antony has been talking, telling them everything! That’s not good!”

  “We’ll it doesn’t matter because we’re about to kill them all anyway!”

  “I don’t feel good about this. This isn’t right! That’s way too specific a location!”

  “Maybe Antony didn’t tell them, maybe he said it in an interview. Maybe that’s how they know.”

  “We should have stayed in London.” Jody declared. “Henson is right. Your desperation makes you dangerous.”

  “I did not come all this way to not go in. No way. I’m going in. You can either come with me like you said you wanted to or you can fuck off. I don’t care.” Desmond shot, starting up the truck and driving off. They were coming back later for the rescue mission, when they had darkness on their side for the perfect element of surprise.

  “Let’s call Henson. Tell him where we are, tell him what’s here.”

  “No.”

  “He can send back-up!”

  “I said no. No one else is coming. I didn’t even want you to come.”

  “He’s going to be searching for you, for us, but now anyway. Let’s just get the reinforcements we need. What if they set this up? What if it’s a trap?”

  “I don’t care whether you’re with me or not. I’
m going in tonight.”

  “I’m calling Henson.” Jody dropped his phone in the foot well as Desmond slammed on the break, throwing him forwards in his seat.

  “Get out.”

  “What?”

  “If you’re calling Henson you get out now. I’ll need a jump on you and I’m not divulging anymore information to a mole.” The word pierced Jody’s heart, but he had to make Desmond see sense.

  “This could be a trap.”

  “Do you know what they’ll do? If they know we’re coming and we’re bringing back up?” Desmond looked Jody straight in the eyes. “They’ll kill Stuart. Won’t even blink. They’ll just shoot him between the eyes and bounce with Antony before we can get there.”

  “Because Antony is so precious.” Jody spat, tears filling his eyes.

  “No. Because they took Antony in the first place for a reason. They’re trying to get to me. As far as they’re concerned, Stuart has no value. He’s just a spare.”

  “Stop.” Jody gasped.

  “And if you go calling Henson, they’ll leave him in one of those rooms, dripping blood for you to go find whilst they disappear, again, with Antony. And you’ll have to live with the face that not taking a risk cost him his life-”

  “I said stop!” Jody gritted, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes as he fell back against the chair. Desmond put a soothing hand on his knee.

  “We’re both stressed, we’re both worried, we both just want our loved ones back safely in our arms,” Desmond cooed. “That means we have to take this risk. No back-up, no help, no Henson.” Jody let out a deep breath, staring out the front window. “Okay?”

  “Okay…” Jody breathed, drying the tears from his face. Desmond clutched the back of Jody’s neck softly, waiting until the man looked at him.

  “You can save him. We can save both of them.” Desmond promised. Jody just nodded. He was by no means convinced that this was anything other than a set-up, a trap specifically for Desmond, but there was a small fraction of a chance that Desmond was right. If he was, and the kidnappers killed Stuart because he had alerted them they were coming, he would never forgive himself.