by T. J. Mines
"They want to protect you, sir."
"Why? I've got my security detail."
"I told them, sir, but they insist," Senior says.
"Fine, let them in," Quint says, "but don't let any one of them leave this floor."
"Right, sir," Senior says and disconnects the line.
Moments later Quint hears the sound of voices in the hallway. He waits for them to pass before he gets up and opens the door. In the hallway he sees six members of the guard, in full riot outfit. At the back is the Captain.
"Captain!" Quint says after them, "what an honor for you to personally come and protect me, in my own house at that."
The Captain turns on his heels to look at Quint. His face looks about to explode. It's bright red and his eyes almost bulge out of their sockets.
"It's all your fault," the Captain says, pointing a finger at Quint.
"What is?" Quint asks, putting his hands up in mock defense.
"This situation we now are in," the Captain explains, "my whole force is out there looking for one of our own and scaring the public into their houses. We've now closed every venue in town and every one is under house arrest, just to find Ismael. How am I to explain this mess to the rest of Du Bois when we're done?"
"Leave that to me, fine Captain," Quint says, "I'll tell the people what a traitorous man Ismael Abadi is. I'll show them how he tricked all of us in believing he is one of us while in fact he's been working with Al Bari all this time."
"Are you that sure of yourself?" the Captain asks.
"Would you mind joining me in my office? I'll show you what evidence I have."
Quint looks over the heads of the guards at Senior.
"Senior, could you bring us a pot of fresh coffee in my office? And make sure these fine men of the city guard are well taken care of in the kitchen."
Senior nods and motions for the guards to follow him. Quint steps back into his office and holds the door open to let the Captain in. He offers the old man a seat in one of the vintage Chesterfield chairs next to an old world globe. The Captain accepts the lush seat and looks at the ornament next to him.
"How did you get this?" the Captain asks.
"I found it on my travels here," Quint answers. It's a lie, but the truth would make him look bad. In fact, he would be arrested on the spot for treason himself and this whole operation would be for nothing.
"What is it?" the Captain asks.
Stunned by the lack of world knowledge Quint waits for the other man to laugh and tell him it was a joke. The Captain keeps looking at the ball with the delicate drawings of the countries that used to be. Quint raises his eyebrows.
"A globe," he says.
"Really? Who would've thought I would ever see a real globe. With my own eyes!" the Captain says and looks Quint in the eye.
Quint can only stare at the remark he just heard.
Senior walks into the kitchen with the five other guards. He sets them down at the kitchen table and walks over to the stove to put water on for coffee.
"You have real coffee here?" one of the guards asks.
"Yes, we do," Senior answers.
"That's so cool!" another guard says, "I'm gonna drink real coffee!"
"No you're not," Senior says, "you'll have tea or just plain water."
"But!" the guard protests.
"Coffee is for the master and his private guests only."
"Master?" the first guard says, "are you his slave?"
"Come on!" a third chimes in, "there is no slavery here, only in Al Bari."
"Yeah, Tank," the guard who wanted the coffee says, "only in Al Bari."
"It could be here too," Tank defends himself.
The five guards bicker among themselves to convince Tank that slavery is not possible in Du Bois. Senior lets them. He knows what he is and always has been. It's been a good enough life for him. Not easy, but he managed to reach a respectable age.
The water is cooking and he takes it off the fire to pour over the ground coffee. The five guards stop their noise to watch what Senior is doing. In the moment of silence Senior hears something upstairs.
"See, Captain," Quint says, "that's why Abadi must've been the one to tell Al Bari about it all."
Quint is holding up the piece of paper Ismael found in the pocket of the woman he shot. It used to be in an evidence bag but Quint took it out, despite the protests by the Captain.
"That may be," the Captain says, "but what you're holding now can never be used as evidence anymore."
Quint tosses the paper onto his desk. It lands in his ash tray where a half smoked cigar sits.
"I don't care about that," he says, "We will hold a public trial and see what the people of Du Bois think of him."
"We have to catch him first," the Captain says.
"You have to, indeed." Quint sits back down in the chair next to the Captain.
"Why doesn't Senior hurry up with that coffee?" Quint changes the subject.
"Maybe my men drank it all," the Captain says with a small smile.
"No, he wouldn't give them any."
"Why not?"
"Because I said so."
"You said he's have to take good care of them," the Captain says confused.
"Good care doesn't mean 'give them my very expensive coffee'," Quint says, "it means that they get a drink and some left over cake from desert."
"Aren't your protectors worthy of your coffee?"
"You are, because I respect you," Quint says, while substituting 'respect' with 'need' in his head.
Senior enters the upstairs hallway. Further down, the door to the torture room opens, which is strange because no one should be in there. Two people step out, a man and a woman. The latter grabs something from her boot and throws. A knife enters Senior's chest with force. He's never been stabbed before. The cold steel entering between his ribs feels funny. It stops moving when it hits his back ribs. The force of the impact sends Senior reeling back a pace. He looks down and sees a smooth hilt with a hole in the end close to where a man's heart should be. He looks up. The two people down the hallway look at him, as if waiting for him to do something. What's he supposed to do? He's never been in this situation. What would the master want him to do now?
He should probably call out or warn the security forces. That makes sense. He opens his mouth and tries to speak. A wet gurgle emerges. That's not good. He looks back. His head moves but his vision lags behind. It makes him dizzy so he moves his head slower. That helps. He moves his hand up to where the knife hit him. He hits the cold wet steel. Wet? Was it wet before? He whips his head back to look down. His vision follows a moment later, making him noxious. He looks down, his vision keeps up this time, and sees that the knife is red. It smells like iron. But it just was cold blank steel. Why is it red and iron now? He tries to grab the knife but his vision is working against him. He now has two knives in him and two hands trying to grab it. It's hard to pick which one to focus on. He closes his hand. He feels the hilt and pulls. The knife comes free and everything goes to black.
The old man drops to the floor, the knife still in his hand. A pool of blood forms around him.
"That took a while," Ismael says. He's clad in a all black suit and has a small crossbow with him. It's loaded and ready to fire. Jo-Ann stands behind him. She threw her knife right in the man's heart. Or so it seemed. But he kept standing until he took it out himself. That's something to look into later on. Now it's their task to find Quint and capture him.
Jo-Ann wants to kill him, but Ismael won't do that without a proper trial. He knows Quint is responsible but he wants justice to prevail and convict him in a courtroom with judges and a jury. Not in a public trial, as was ordered for him.
"He's Seif's butler. I could've known that," Jo-Ann says, "he's from a family with mirrored internal organs."
"He's what?" Ismael never heard of that.
"I'll explain later, let's go."
"Where's that damn moron!" Quint shouts as he walks over to his desk.
He picks up the phone and presses a button. At the other side someone picks up.
"Hello?" an unknown voice says.
"Who's this?" Quint asks.
"Tank, who're you?"
"Your mayor to be. Where's the old fool?" Quint asks.
"Who? The mayor?"
"No, my butler!"
"Oh, I dunno, he just went away. Told us to stay put and wait for him."
"And to stay away from the coffee," a voice in the background adds.
Quint slams the phone on the desk.
"Fuck!" he shouts.
Jo-Ann rounds the corner behind Ismael. He insists taking the lead. He's fine in what he does but she's the pro here. This is what she trained for. They came up with the plan to enter Quint's mansion after the house arrest was called. Ismael was expecting it. That way they could go by all of his known friends and relatives to see if he'd be hiding there. She then thought up the way to get into the house here. They could choose from any of the windows at the top floor, but she didn't expect to see what they found behind the one they chose. It gave her the chills.
From behind a door at the end of the hallway come the sounds of a party. Du Bois people sure are strange. She hears men shouting things like "chug chug chug" after which someone curses followed by laughter. A phone rings and the party goes quiet. A few moments later she hears someone swear in the next room over. It's Quint.
"That's him!" Ismael says in hushed tones.
Jo-Ann moves even closer behind him, pushing him forward. He takes the last steps needed to get to the door and puts his hand on the knob. He turns it. The door flies open inward, taking Ismael with it. He tumbles into Quint who, at the same time, barrels forward to exit the room. The collision drops them both, Quint on top. A struggle is next where Ismael recovers first from the surprise and works his way on top. Quint however, is stronger than Ismael thought and as soon as he grasps the situation makes for a formidable foe.
"Ismael!" the Captain shouts.
"Captain?" Ismael says, panting from the hard labor in controlling Quint, "what are you doing here?"
"What the!" the Captain shouts.
Ismael is thrown off of Quint and rolls to soften the impact. The moment he sees who pushed him away he's on his feet again. Jo-Ann is holding a dagger in front of Quint's face with the man holding it at bay. The strength shown by Jo-Ann is incredible. She inches closer, ready to kill the man.
The Captain grabs Jo-Ann by the waste and pulls her off. He holds a gun to her head to stop her from struggling.
"Don't you dare lady!" the Captain says, pushing the barrel into her temple.
Jo-Ann drops the knife.
Quint is getting up. He seems unsure of the balance now, looking from Jo-Ann and the Captain to Ismael and back. He's on one knee when Ismael sees his crossbow under the desk. It must've slid out when he fell. He dives for it, getting a hold and points at Quint, now fully erect.
"Stop!" Ismael says, "You're under arrest for treason."
"What?" Jo-Ann says, "we're supposed to kill him!"
Quint starts laughing.
"Captain," Quint says, "I believe I've found your fugitive. Take him and that pale bitch you have there into custody and have them ready for a public trial. Now we can add attempted murder of a city official to the list. And this I can prove!"
Quint puts on a smug smile and looks at Ismael.
"It's over, boy," he says, "drop the crossbow and leave with dignity."
"No!" Ismael counters, "You drop down on your knees and put your hands over your head."
"Ismael," the Captain joins in, "I have to arrest you."
"Fine," Ismael says, still pointing the crossbow at Quint, "but first I arrest him."
"You can't arrest me," Quint says, "you're no guard anymore. You're just a criminal on the run."
"He's innocent until proved otherwise," the Captain says.
Jo-Ann lifts her knee and stomps down hard on the Captain's foot, denting the hard too with her heel. The Captain lets go of her and screams out in pain, his toes crushed in his shoe. Jo-Ann jumps at Quint, long nails out like a feline ready for the kill. Ismael does what he's learned all his life: protect and serve. He shoots his crossbow hitting Jo-Ann in the shoulder, changing her momentum. Quint steps back and she falls past him. Quint turns around and runs for the door, not waiting to see how fast Ismael can reload. He's out into the hallway before Ismael can say anything.
Ismael first checks if Jo-Ann is alright. The bolt hit her but glanced off, leaving a bleeding gash. The black fabric is torn and frays are stuck in the wound. She'll live just fine. Then he looks at the Captain. The man is crumpled onto his own feet, a pool of blood forming beneath him. Ismael rushes over to help him. As Ismael grabs the old man by his shoulders to support him, he sees the crossbow bolt protruding from his chest. The bolt glanced off of Jo-Ann and ricocheted into the Captain.
Jo-Ann wakes up. She remembers breaking free and lunging after Quint, then a sharp pain at her back and the hard floor rushing to meet her face first. After that, nothing. She opens her eyes. Her nose hurts. Her shoulder stings. She gets her hands under her and pushes up. The strain on her shoulder is too much and she moves her weight over to he other side. Now in a sitting position she feels for her nose. It broke, but that's easy to fix. Nothing to worry about.
She looks back. Ismael is sitting with the old man, the Captain, in his arms. He's crying. Why is he crying? She notices the blood on the floor. Is the old man hurt? Did she hit him that hard? And where's Quint? Jo-Ann gets onto her feet and walks to the door. At the end of the hallway the party continued, oblivious of what happened only a few doors over. From the other side of the hallway she hears the faint sound of a combustion engine far away.
"He's getting away!" she shouts inside before running after the sound. She ends up at a staircase down. She tries to open the door but it won't budge. The engine, which she can hear fine through the door, revs up. It's followed by multiple bike engines starting. Then the noise is gone.
Jo-Ann walks back to Quint's office. She's angry at Ismael for stopping her kill Quint. She's angry at herself because she let Ismael stop her. She walks into the room and sees Ismael still sitting with the Captain. He's rocking back and forth.
"What were you thinking!" Jo-Ann says, stopping to confront Ismael, "the plan was to kill him, not to arrest him! Now he's got away, God knows where, and you're here bawling like a baby because I kicked your friend in the foot."
Ismael stops his motions and looks up to her. His eyes are puffy and red.
"I killed him," Ismael says.
"What?"
"I killed him."
"Who?" Jo-Ann asks. Then she notices the blood under Ismael and the Captain.
"Why?" is her next question.
Ismael looks at her with a blank expression. She walks over and gets down on a knee. She puts a hand on Ismael's back and examines the body he's holding. A small crossbow bolt is stuck in the old man's chest.
"Why?" she asks again.
"I shot you," Ismael says before he starts crying again.
It makes sense now. Her shoulder, still stinging, redirected Ismael's bolt into the old man, killing him in the process. She strokes Ismael's hair for a moment to comfort him.
"I know," she says.
The facts that he shot her, let Quint go and didn't want to kill the man in the first place have to wait for now. Ismael lost a dear friend and a mentor by his own hand, even though it was an accident. Furthermore, there are more urgent matters. Quint must've left the city by car, setting off alarm bells all over the place. The automatic defense systems should be activated and shoot at the moving targets, but she can't be sure about that. Quint did have a lot of influence and he's smart enough to have a working escape plan at the ready. But for now they have to get out of here and get back to safety.
She grabs Ismael by the shoulders.
"We need to go," she says.
Reluctantly Ismael lets go of the Captain's body. She stands,
taking Ismael with her, and pushes him out in front of her.
Quint enters the garage under his house at a run. The security personnel present aim their weapons at the staircase behind him in case he's being chased. But he barred the door with the steel pipe he has there for this situation. Maybe he could've talked himself out of it, maybe he could've killed them all and say they all died fighting each other. But those options could backfire, and that's a risk he can't take. So he sets the exit plan in motion.
"You two, get the car ready!" he directs, "and the rest of you, get a dirt bike and make sure they're filled up for a long trip."
All around him his personnel springs into action. All the members of his security force have been trained in combat driving and know how to use the vehicles stored. Quint walks over to a terminal on the wall. He had it installed years ago and made his aided check it every week to make sure it'll do it's job when needed. And now he needs it.
He presses the on button and waits for it to start up. It shows the Al Bari high command logo and a progress bar. It fills up too slow for Quint's taste. He did test it once and then it seemed to be fine. You never know how it would work in the real situation. Next time he will make sure the thing loads faster. A dashboard is shown. It has buttons and shows the current status of all the defense systems Du Bois has. He can influence all the systems through this one terminal. He is the only one who's had this integration made, the guards themselves still use a separate controller for each system. All the defenses are on.
The outer perimeter is on medium alert. They don't expect anyone, the intelligence department didn't get Abadi's information yet and Quint has been busy shielding them from the most important Al Bari movements in the past few months. But were he to open his outside wall door now he would trigger all kinds of alarms and all guns on top of the wall would be trained on him. Which he doesn't want.
So he taps a few actions on the terminal to deactivate sensors. The guards monitoring the defense perimeter won't notice. The software made a copy of all the readings before the sensors disabled. Now the guards see a fake stream. At least until the sweeper program finds the hacks and erases them. All systems turn purple, showing that the hack succeeded.
