by Newbiel
"Come on! Why does this kind of thing always happen to me?"
Nathaniel wanted to shout to the sky, feeling wronged. That did not stop him from materializing two of his knives and handling them in a reverse grip. If she wanted to up the stakes, he was going to deliver. His fighting spirit was at an all time high and he wanted to know if he could beat her. With a shout, they came at each other with ferocity. In the first exchange, the sound of metal on metal ring at least five times in the hallway.
The two bodyguards were looking at the fight stupefied, they knew how strong and skilled their boss was and more importantly, they knew why. To encounter someone who could compete with her outside of the Five, was a rare occurrence, for him to be this young was something that they never thought would happen.
Nathaniel on his end was facing a difficult situation. He had no calm about saying that the woman was a better fighter than him. In terms of battle experience, technique, decisions making and intuition she was leagues above him. The only reason why he was still in the fight was because he was faster than her and his ability permitted him to always know where a weapon was on him. Despite this, he had a couple of close calls and even if her blade failed to draw blood, his once impeccable tuxedo was looking worse for wear at the moment.
The fight that was looking more and more like a dance abruptly stopped, their bodies close to each other absolutely frozen and their eyes locked.
"You are trusting your eyes too much." Nathaniel said calmly.
Aware of what was happening around them, Nathaniel slowly moved his knife away from her throat and took a couple of steps back. Her two bodyguards lowered their gun when they saw him step back. Making his knives disappear from his hands, he made a low bow to her as a sign of respect. Seeing that she was still frozen, Nathaniel turned back and headed to leave the hallway when she finally found her voice again.
"I'am Brunhilde Herzog Von Bayern." She said.
Turning around, Nathaniel thought about it for a second before a smile made his way to his face.
"A very apt name. My name is Nathaniel Abraham Lyndon."
"We will meet again Nathaniel Abraham Lindon." She said, looking almost like a threat. "We are leaving." She orders, making her way out without turning back to him, her two bodyguards doing the same thing.
It was only when they were out that Nathaniel collapsed to the floor, his face turning white. The fight was so taxing and the speed he had to maintain was so great that he had torn almost every tendon in both of his arms and also most of his legs. That was the worst of his injury but the only ones, he also had a split lip from the punch that she gave him and tore a couple of muscles. Breathing slowly to keep the pain in check, he started healing his injuries one at a time until he was done. It was ten minutes later that he could get up again without having to hold up a pained scream.
Looking at the state of his clothes, Nathaniel sighed. There was no way that he could go back to the party without raising more eyebrows than he could afford. Luckily, he had a very smart grandmother that knew him well. Taking his phone out, he called Jean who picked up immediately.
"Yes?"
"Jean, can you bring me my spare tuxedo please? I'm in a hallway on the ground floor, west side of the building."
"Ah ah! Pay up Amal, he needs his spare suit! I won!" Nathaniel heard in the background.
"Jean." Nathaniel said patiently but with a tinge of annoyance.
"Yes sir, I bring it to you right now."
"Good man. And since you bet on me, I will take half of the winning." He answered before hanging up.
Chapter 211: :
Walking outside of the hallway, Brunhilde and her two bodyguards march through the ballroom. A couple of very influential people recognized her and made their way through her but she just ignored them and continued to walk. It was not long before they were out of the ballroom and the moment they passed the door outside, a BMW stopped in front of the doors. one of her bodyguards hurriedly walked in front of her to open the passengers door and closed it after she got in, the one who opened the door for her sat in the front while the others one walked around the car and sat beside her.
The car started rolling immediately after everyone was inside without one word needing to be spoken. None of the three mens inside the car were surprised by this, they were long used to the fact that their boss seldomly talked. Even now, she was just looking at the window, still tapping on it. It was a habit that she developed while she was in deep thought. In her mind, she was reviewing the fight with Nathaniel again and again, trying to figure out why she lost the fight. Of course, with the gown and the heels that she was wearing tonight, she wasn't at her top fighting strength but it should have been easy for her to beat one cocky youth.
The reality proved her wrong. She could tell that she was the best fighter while they were fighting, in terms of experienced combat technique, she was far above him and she still lost. He was a really competent fighter, there was no doubt in her mind about it but what made him dangerous was his imaginativity and his intelligence. He had also an adaptability to everything that she threw at him like she never seen before and considering her vast experience, it was really saying something.
He was also so darn fast! She always thought that she was the fastest and now someone even more young than her proved that she was wrong. She could not understand how he does it at the end, she was sure that she saw the knife was held in a reverse grip, her dodging the blow to the side for the blade to pass harmlessly to her right cheek but the next second, his knife was in his palm, the tip of it pressing on her throat. She also did not know how he managed to pass the Secret Service security with two knives on him while they had metal detectors at each entrance.
There was also what happened when they met. That electrical current that passed through her, the way that she got conscious of him in a way that she never experienced in her entire life. Even her oldest memories could not find any occurrence of something like that ever happening to a member of the Five. There were just too many things that were special about him for her to not get curious.
"Nathaniel Abraham Lyndon." She said slowly, almost like she was tasting each word. "Find if it's his real name and then call our best genealogist. Go back five hundred years in the past and find if he has any link to the Five. I want to know everything there is to know about him, you have one hour." She ordered.
"At your command, Duchess." Her two protectors said in unison before taking their phones out.
******
"What were you doing in there? The rest of the Hotel is off limits tonight, you of all people should know that."
A voice ambushed him the moment that he got back inside the ballroom. It was not a surprise for him at all as he expected something like that already.
"Tobias, why are you so cranky all the time? I had a wardrobe malfunction so I got in there to change. Would you have liked it better if I had changed in front of everyone here?"
"Wardrobe malfunction heh?" Tobias asked doubtfully.
"Yes. Come on Tobias, I know you are still pissed that we miss the training exercise with the different special force units but we had no other choice. The time was too short to simply wait, we would have lost the hostages." Nathaniel said.
"I know that but it was annoying all the same. I hate their arrogance and they just used the fact that we missed it again to ridicule us."
"I'm sure they did but it's not a reason to put it on me. Just organize another one in three month and we will be there. I'm sure if you goad them, they will accept. They will never miss an occasion to make fun of you after all." Nathaniel advises.
"Alright, I will do that but you better win or I'm going to be pissed." Tobias warned.
"I can't guarantee that we will win but I can guarantee that even if we lose, we are going to win their respect. Now, I assume that if you are here, William and Linda have also arrived and they asked you to get me. So, what is this all about?"
"Yes, the President and the F
irst Lady have indeed arrived." He corrected, looking at him with a severe expression.
"They asked me to call them by their first name and I would never call them like that if there are other people present."
"Yeah and you should have respectfully turned them down before getting back to calling them with their title."
"This is nonsense and I hate nonsense the most. Are you going to tell me what's going on or not?" Nathaniel asks.
"You have a case." Tobias said simply.
"Ok, tell me about it."
"I can't." He answers, not meeting his eyes.
"Why? Isn't this supposed to be your job to brief me when I have a case?" Nathaniel asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"Usually, it would but in this particular case, it isn't. I don't know what this is about, the only thing that the President told me is that he wanted to brief you himself on this particular issue. Just follow me."
"Alright, I'm intrigued, lead on."
Following Tobias to the side, they exit the ballroom again using another door and then pass the main hall before stopping in front of a door where two Secret Service agents were posted. Nodding to them, Tobias knocks on the door and waits to get acknowledged before entering inside, Nathaniel following along. Once inside, Tobias excused himself, saying that he had work to do and leave Nathaniel alone with the President and the First Lady.
"Hello William, hello Linda. Can I say that you look amazing tonight?" Nathaniel said with a big smile directed at her.
"Come on Nathaniel, someone as handsome as you shouldn't encourage an old lady like me." Linda reprimanded him nicely.
"I'm just saying it like I see it." Nathaniel doubled down shamelessly, making her smile.
"Well, if you are done flirting with my wife, I have work for you Nathaniel." William said, dryly.
"Of course sir, I'm curious to know what this job is."
"I'm sure you are. Almost ten days ago, two daughters of one of our Senators got kidnapped in Mexico while they were busy Spring Breaking. Their two bodyguards were found in Cancun where the girls were last seen, their throat slit." William explained.
"Ten days? Why wait that long to ask for help?" Nathaniel frowned.
"The Senator chose not to involve the government and call a team of negotiators with ample experience to handle this crisis. A ransom was quickly agreed between the ravissor and the Senator and was paid but something went wrong in the middle of the exchange. The negotiator team was wiped out and now they asked for ten times more money than they did initially or they are going to kill the girls."
"Yes, it was certainly scheduled that way for the very beginning by the ravissors. Demanding more money while conserving the moral high ground, I'm sure they said that they were attacked or something like that, I've seen it happen more times than that I could count." Nathaniel nodded.
"I didn't know that you had such an intensive experience in hostage negotiation Nathaniel." William said casually, lifting an eyebrow.
"Maybe because I never told you about it William. What I want to know is why, for the second time, you made sure to omit the Senator family name. What are you hiding William?"
Looking at each other bitterly, the Presidential couple turned back to him.
"Nathaniel, the Senator in question is John Livingston, his two taken daughters are Elisabeth and Madison." Linda explained.
Hearing that, Nathaniel's face abruptly closes down and his eyes turn cold.
Chapter 212: :
Hearing Madison's name took Nathaniel by surprise and his mind immediately wandered to the past. It reminds him of the first time they met when she was with her two best friends on the campus where she invited him to a party in her sorority house. The first time they kiss in his room in New York. The first time they had sex in her room. All the time they have together where they had fun, always something to laugh about. And then there was the end where she did the only thing that she had promised him to never do and him leaving her without turning back, erasing her of his life.
"You think I'm not going to take the case because of my history with Madison." Nathaniel said coldly.
"This is my fear, yes." Linda nodded.
"I don't agree with my wife on this one. I know you have a moral code that you follow, you will always do what needs to be done. This is in your DNA." William object.
Nathaniel just kept silent, trying to sort through his contratory feelings. In fact, he made the decision to disregard his feelings entirely. He needed to make an informed decision based on his experience and analytic mind, like he always does.
"If you ask me if I'm ever going to pardon her, the answer will be no. If you ask me if I will allow her into my life again after this, the answers will be no. If you ask me if she deserves to die because she made a mistake, my answer will also be no. We are taking the case." Nathaniel decided.
"Great." William was finally able to relax.
"I will need every piece of information they have on the kidnapping, starting with the group who revendique the kidnapping of the girls."
"Well, I don't have that information, there was simply not enough time to learn more about it. I told the Senator and his wife to send every piece of information they have at the address you gave me. Knowing him, everything should be already there. I also told them to stay tonight in DC, if you want to question them yourself tomorrow."
"Well, not myself for obvious reasons but I will certainly send someone else to do it."
"I didn't think about that but you are right. Tobias arranged a transport for your team, a chopper is waiting for them at JFK with a flight plan to DC validated."
"Thanks, I appreciate that, I will call my team right now." Nathaniel said before taking his phone out.
"Wait!" William stopped him before adding. "Before you call them, I would like to have your take on something."
"Alright, I'm intrigued, I'm all ears William, go ahead." Nathaniel answers, putting his phone back in his pocket.
******
Inside her hotel room, Brunhilde was cleaning her sword with patience. Her gorgeous gown was all but discarded to the back of a chair nearby. Once she got back from the party, she immediately took a shower and put on some more comfortable clothes. Even if she was wearing a tight jean and a silk shirt, all of it looked elegant on her. Taking her sharpening stone from her bag, she starts passing it to her blade to fix the nicks that Nathaniel made with his knives while they were fighting.
Once she was satisfied with her work, she cleaned it again before disengaging the magnetic lock, the blade becoming a belt once again. After putting on her belt with the dress, she got out of her room to meet with her two bodyguards outside, who were still working on their assignment. Calling them simply bodyguard was not accurate. In fact, Brunhilde knew these two mens all of her life. They were her protector since she was born, assigned personally by her father because they were the best. The five protector training was not a joke and could be considered one of the harshest training regiments in the world, if the world knew about it of course.
"Do you have what I ask you?" She asked.
"Yes Duchess." The both of them said at the same time before looking at each other. Without needing to talk, they decided who was going to start first.
"I looked into his life and yes, he's name is real. Nathaniel Abraham Lyndon, born in NY December the first, 1995. He's quite famous too, he's a talented singer, musician and even actor. His first album sold two hundred thousand copies and that's only in the US. He's currently studying at Columbia Law School between movies and promo tours. He also reputed to have a genius legal mind and was dubbed one of the most promising lawyers of his generation. I believe he's just a genius in general. He's quite active on Twitter and donate a lot of money to charity. That's all he accomplished in just a year and a half time."
"Impressive." Brunhilde said before asking. "What was he doing before that?"
"He has been in an Hospital bed since he was twelve. He was hit by a car after pushing a wom
an and her baby out of the way and passed the next four years in a deep coma state."
"So he managed to do all that while being effectively only thirteen years old. That's quite a feat."
Looking at each other, her two protectors were surprised. They had never heard their mistress compliment anyone, not even mentioning two times in a row. Keeping their faces neutral, they wait for the next question.
"Do our genealogists call back?"
"Yes, they just did Duchess. They could not find any link between that boy and the Five. They are going to send files with his complete family history later but they are formal. He's not one of you."
"That can't be right. He's just too young to be that good, even if he's a genius. It's simply impossible to become that proficient in any of these domains for someone who lived for thirteen years." Brunhilde said categorically.
"About that, you asked us to find any link between the boy and the Five. We found something but it's thin." Her protector said, not feeling confident at all.
"Oh? Let me see." Brunhilde said curiously.
The man just took a picture that he had on the table near him face down and gave it to her. Looking at the picture, Brunhilde recognizes Nathaniel on it who seems to be in a discussion with a beautiful woman near him, one that she knew very well.
"Isn't it interesting?" She smiles wolfishly.
*****
"What do you think Scott? From where should we enter the property?" Lucie asked.
The whole team with the exception of Nathaniel was gathered in the conference room, looking attentively at a blueprint display on the huge screen. Lucie had brought the case herself to the team. It concerned a pharmaceutical lab who she suspected was reconditioning passed to date medication in order to increase their profit. So far she had only indirect proof and rumors mostly and that's why she wanted to sneak in with the team's help in order to get real evidence. After that, she will bring the case to Nathaniel.
