by G S Eli
Jack’s heart began to race. He stood up from his seat in order to get a better look. He scanned the train again, observing the passengers in front of him, toward the train’s door. He saw Casey’s foot sticking out into the aisle in the first seat. The sight calmed him, but he couldn’t make out the rest of her. Jack noticed that she was now sitting next to Mila. She just moved over to the door to be more comfortable, or perhaps someone came and woke her. That’s why she moved all the way over to that side, he desperately tried to convince himself.
He got up and politely asked the lady to make room so he could get into the aisle. The woman moved both her legs to the left so he could pass. He managed to squeeze through and into the aisle, leaving the iPhone behind. Even standing, he could only see Casey’s right leg. He proceeded to walk toward the door.
The closer he got, the more of her he could see. Then he suddenly felt his heart drop deep into his stomach. Instead of fear, he now felt complete nausea. She was sleeping with her head on Mila’s shoulder with Mila’s head resting peacefully on top of hers. They looked like a pair of lovers on a romantic getaway.
Jack’s mind was immediately overrun with images and thoughts of everything that might have happened while he was asleep. He stood there frozen in the aisle, pondering what to do next. How could I be so stupid and naive? he wondered.
His shame and self-pity were interrupted as the train came to its next stop and the conductor belted out via the loudspeaker: “Altenbeken … Nächste Station, Paderborn.”
The voice over the loudspeaker and the train’s whistling woke Mila and Casey from their sleep. Casey saw Jack standing frozen in the aisle. Jack turned to return to his seat with his eyes still on Casey. He noticed she tried to get up, but Mila grabbed her hand and held her back. “Don’t make a scene,” Jack heard Mila say.
As he turned his head away—
Slam!
Jack bumped right into a man coming from the opposite end of the car. The impact knocked Jack backward and almost sent him toppling to the ground. The man grabbed the collar of Jack’s army jacket with catlike reflexes and pulled him forward, helping him regain his balance.
Once he was on sure footing, Jack gazed up at the man who had nearly knocked him over. He realized this was a very tall man: his black tie and square shoulders were right at Jack’s eye level. Jack sensed something military about him. His posture was straight and suggested a life of discipline. As Jack scanned upward, he saw the harsh face of a man in his late thirties. Every line and crease in his pale skin made him all the more menacing. Long blond hair framed his rough face. Jack felt the knot in his stomach return as he stared into the man’s cold blue eyes.
“Vere is the rush?” the man asked in a thick German accent.
“Entschuldigung,” Jack stammered as he apologized in German.
“You should vatch vere you’re going,” the man warned.
Once he moved to the side, Jack pushed past. He looked over his shoulder and watched the stranger go. Turning to head down the aisle to his seat, he encountered another man just a few paces behind the first. He was wearing a black suit and tie that matched the other man’s. Jack noticed that the similarities did not stop there. Their facial features were almost identical, except for the frightening scar that traveled from the second man’s left eyebrow all the way down his neck and under his shirt collar. They must have gotten on at Altenbeken Station, he thought.
The scarred man stopped in the aisle near the old lady and pointed to the seat next to her. “Hier ist besetzt,” she replied as she pointed toward Jack.
“Hündin,” the scarred man replied.
Jack figured that the woman was telling him that the seat was taken, but judging by the appalled look on her face, he assumed that the word hündin could not be anything good. Frustrated, the scar-faced man took a seat across the aisle from her as his twin headed toward the front of the car, closer to Mila and Casey.
The train pulled away from the station. Jack turned back once again to check on his friends. Oddly, the blond man chose the same club seats as Mila and Casey, sitting directly across from them. He also noticed Mila pulling Casey even closer to him. It wasn’t some playful act: Mila’s face was dead serious.
The fear and nausea returned in the pit of Jack’s stomach. His and Mila’s eyes met, and Mila confirmed Jack’s fear with the simple glance.
Jack came to a stop near his seat. Before sitting down, he desperately tried to assess the situation unfolding at the front of the train car. From his vantage point he could not fully determine whether or not there was any real danger. They’re probably just commuters, he tried to convince himself.
The old lady pulled her legs aside to let him in, but he stayed standing in the aisle, ready for God knows what. A signal from Mila would help, he thought.
“Is everything OK, young man?” the lady asked.
“I don’t know, Ma’am,” he answered, never taking his eyes off his friends.
“Well, we seem to have some intimidating new passengers,” she said, confirming Jack’s suspicions. She waved her arm, signaling him to pass.
Jack still didn’t move. He kept his eyes locked on his friends; he could feel that these were not normal passengers. There was no time for jealousy now. We’re in some kind of trouble, he thought.
Confused by Jack’s frozen position, the woman motioned with her hand once more.
“Sit down, Jack,” a voice said from the seat across the aisle. It could only be the man with the scar.
Now Jack knew that his suspicions were correct. They were together, and he knew Jack’s name. I’ve got to do something, he thought. Instinctively, he started to hurry toward his friends. The scarred man got up and followed close behind. As he approached Mila and Casey, Jack observed that the other blond man already had a gun pointed at them.
“Shit…” Jack whispered.
Suddenly, he felt something hard being pressed into his shoulder blade. The scarred man was so close Jack could feel his stale breath on the back of his neck. He had no doubt that the pressure he felt was the barrel of a gun, probably identical to the one the other man was holding on his friends.
“I said sit down,” the scarred man ordered.
Jack took a seat next to the twin in the club seats across from Mila and Casey. The man with the scar took his seat across from Jack; his pistol was now tucked in between his body and his arm, discreetly pointing at Jack. The other man kept his gun aimed at Mila.
“Evee-vone jzzust be calm,” the scarred man said. “Vhere is zee pitzel?”
“Pitzel?” Casey asked, confused.
“The pitzel you took from me at our last encounter,” he replied with anger.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what a pitzel is,” Casey insisted without fear.
“Zee pitzel, pitzel, you spoiled American!” the blond man argued.
“I am sorry, but I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” she retorted.
“Casey!” Jack shouted, scolding her for her playful banter with the two thugs.
“He means the gun,” Mila interpreted. “Wir haben keine,” he assured the men in German.
Without another word, the blond man reached beneath Casey’s seat and snatched her purse. His partner perked up, letting his gun show a little more clearly just in case anyone made a move. The blond man rummaged through Casey’s purse, tossing aside makeup containers, drawing pencils, packets of tissues, and the small sketchbook. He found no pistol. Instead, he pulled the golden nail out of the purse.
“No,” Casey gasped.
The blond man raised his pistol, warning them to stay back as he passed the nail across the aisle to his companion. The scarred man took the artifact and tucked it inside his suit jacket.
“My partner and I are going to get off at the next station, and you two are coming with us,” the blond man said to Mila and Casey
.
“Just them?” Jack asked with what he hoped sounded like the jealousy he had felt earlier.
The scarred twin nodded.
“That’s just perfect,” Jack sarcastically replied.
“Jack, this is no time to be jealous,” Mila said.
Jack turned to Mila and started venting as if he had no regard for the dangerous situation the three of them were facing. “You’re absolutely right, Mila,” he said. “The time to be jealous was twenty minutes ago when I was sleeping. That’s when you guys must have been going at it for real.”
“What? You’re crazy!” Casey snapped.
“Am I?” Jack retorted.
“Zhat vill be enough,” the man with the scar demanded from across the aisle. He checked over the seats to see if anyone noticed the scene. It was clear that the old lady was glancing over with some interest. The scarred man pulled his pistol back, trying to keep it better hidden between his body and the seat.
“I hardly know him, Jack!” Casey argued.
“You hardly knew me, but that didn’t stop you from throwing yourself all over me in Berlin,” he argued back, wincing inside that he was trashing the fond memory of them together.
“Stop this at once!” the man guarding Mila and Casey insisted. “You’re causing a scene!”
The scarred man took another look back at the passengers. Jack noticed Mila was scoping the situation. Mila’s eye and natural instincts noticed a pencil that the man had thrown from Casey’s purse had landed right next to her hand. The hitmen were already on edge; they kept checking the other passengers. Jack knew that Mila had a plan. He just hoped the goons weren’t too keen to pick up on it.
“No sense lying now. You’re right, Jack. She was all over me once you fell asleep, weren’t you, Casey?” Mila said. “It was like in Whistleblower, issue one.”
“What?” Casey shouted.
“I said quiet,” the scarred man hissed.
Whistleblower? Jack thought. What the hell is he talking about? Liza Carver doesn’t hook up with anyone in issue one. The closest thing is … oh …
He remembered the iconic comic panel of Liza disarming a distracted hitman by seducing him then stabbing him with a pencil. Jack locked eyes with Mila for a split second. Somehow that’s all it took for them to realize they understood each other. Mila glanced at Casey, then down to the pencil by her hand. She gave him the same look of understanding.
“Come on, Casey, just admit it. Let’s tell Jack what we did while he was sleeping,” Mila insisted.
Casey started to play along. She put one arm behind her head and massaged the back of her neck while pushing her chest out a bit. Her gaze drifted past the armed man across from her, who was now even more on edge, then over to Jack. “I’m sorry, Jack, I just couldn’t help it. You know how I get when I’m around guys,” she said with a hint of seduction. “You know what? On second thought, let’s show him what we did.”
Mila put a hand on Casey’s thigh and slowly slid it upward. OK, you’re taking this a little too far, guys, Jack thought. He couldn’t quite shake the jealousy, even though it was a front.
Casey seductively bit her bottom lip as Mila’s hand got dangerously close to the hem of her shorts.
The blond man leaned forward, grabbed Mila’s collar, and pulled him away. “Cut it out! Take your hand off her, you disgusting Gypsy!” he insisted in a threatening whisper.
“Come on, just give us five seconds,” Mila begged.
At that same moment, Mila shot a glance at Jack, signaling to him that he was about to make a move. In a split second, the two of them leaped into action. Mila grabbed the first man’s gun and stood, forcing the weapon into the air. Jack did the same with the scarred man.
Casey grabbed the pencil and jammed it into the scarred man’s wrist, forcing him to let go of the gun. As the alarmed passengers matched the scarred man’s screams, Jack got a firm hold of the weapon. Unfortunately, it popped right out of his grip when the force from Mila and the other twin’s struggling knocked him from behind. The gun slid down the aisle, heading toward the old lady. To Jack’s surprise, the woman used her flowered bag to stop the weapon’s advance. The other passengers moved away from the fight in great panic. As Jack sprinted toward the old lady, who now picked up the gun, he feared that she wouldn’t return it, but to his surprise she simply handed it to him, then went on to hold her bag.
Mila and the blond man kept wrestling over the gun while the scarred man desperately applied pressure to his wrist to stop the blood that was gushing everywhere. Jack noticed spurts of blood splattering Casey’s face. Some of it landed near her lips, and without thinking, she licked it clean. The scarred man dropped to the floor, and the entire train car flew into a greater panic as passengers screamed in terror and confusion at the near-deadly brawl in the midst of their morning commute. The front of the passenger car was turning into a bloodbath.
The scarred man was now weakened from shock and blood loss, allowing Jack to pin him against the wall. With their assailant immobilized, Casey reached into his suit pocket and seized the nail. Time seemed to slow as she drew it out and stared at its golden surface. She then stared down the scarred man with a fierce gaze. For a moment, Jack felt as if she was going to plunge the nail into her attacker’s heart. She definitely was not acting like the sweet girl he thought he knew.
He snapped back to reality. Casey wiped clean some of the blood that stained the nail before slipping it into her belt like a sword. Jack was too busy holding their attacker against the wall to take notice. Channeling Deborah’s actions from the hospital room, he pistol-whipped the man, striking him on the side of the head. Bam! The blow was so hard it knocked a tooth from the man’s bloody mouth. Their foe was knocked senseless for the time being.
Casey’s knees shook and buckled. The violence was obviously getting the best of her.
“Get her out of here!” Mila yelled as he struggled with the other man.
Jack grabbed a very distraught Casey and pulled her toward the other end of the car. The terrified passengers screamed and recoiled in fear at the sight of the gun in Jack’s hand and blood trickling down Casey’s face. The old woman was now gone from her seat to God knows where.
By now, the blond man was starting to overpower Mila. He pushed him into the aisle and then slammed him hard into the train’s doorway. Mila was weakened from this maneuver, but he managed to keep his grip on the gun. Now he was in a more difficult position, being pinned up against the door of the railcar. The man realized his advantage. He started to bang him up against the door a few more times, and with every thud, Mila became weaker. The last slam against the door caused it to slide open behind them, causing the two of them to tumble into the open-air connecting section between the cars.
Mila was now on his back with the man on top of him. He managed to slam the man’s hand into the safety railing. Mila repeated this move over and over. Finally, the blond man loosened his grip and the gun fell, lost to the German countryside. With the gun gone, the assailant flew into a beating frenzy, striking Mila repeatedly.
At that moment, Casey began to come to her senses. She looked back and saw Mila as he was struck again and again. “No!” she cried as she pulled away from Jack and sprinted over to help him.
“Wait!” Jack said. “Damn it!” he swore as he raced after her.
Casey jumped on top of the man as he beat Mila senseless. She grabbed him by the neck, trying to pull him off of her friend with a chokehold. Jack was right behind Casey, aiming the gun and waiting for an opportunity to get a clear shot, fearing he might hit her or Mila.
Mila could not free himself from under the blond man, and it was clear he had been beaten very badly. As Casey continued trying to choke him, the man rose to his knees and slammed her up against the railing, causing the nail, the key to their journey, to fall from the train and disappear into the thick brush.
/>
The man spun around and threw a brutal hook, squarely punching Casey in the jaw. He drew his hand back, ready to strike again. Jack aimed the pistol and reluctantly placed pressure on the trigger. But before he could fire, a German shepherd unexpectedly leaped down from the roof of the train, landing on their attacker.
What the hell? Was he on the roof the entire time? Jack figured.
The dog tore into the blond man without mercy. The man and the dog fell off the train while it was still traveling at full throttle. Wolfy never stopped biting him; he sank his teeth into the man’s throat even as they fell hard onto the side of the opposite tracks.
“Halt! Und lassen sie ihre eaffe!” someone yelled.
Jack peered over his shoulder to see a police constable with a pistol drawn. “Drop your weapon!” the man repeated in English.
Jack dropped the gun. “You are under arrest!” the officer shouted.
With his hands held in the air, Jack looked over at Mila and Casey, who were kneeling in exhaustion in-between the railcars. He slightly nodded his head a few times, gesturing for them to jump off the train.
With slow, careful steps, Jack walked back into the train car, toward the constable. Suddenly, a horrible shriek filled the train and the floor seemed to jolt violently beneath their feet. What the hell? Jack thought as he fell to the aisle floor. Someone had pulled the emergency brake.
The locomotive began to screech to a violent stop. The brakes screamed, and the force of the sudden stop sent the officer and a few passengers tumbling to the floor as well. Seizing this opportunity, Mila and Casey leaped off and disappeared from Jack’s view.
Jack rose to his feet struggling to keep his balance as the train desperately tried to come to a full stop. The smell of burning brakes filled the car, and the whistle was ear-piercingly loud. Once on his feet, Jack ran back to the exit and only paused a moment to check if the constable was still in pursuit. Thankfully, the officer was still on his hands and knees, groping for his weapon, which had slid beneath a seat.
