The fighting continues as I sprinted my way across Calle Victoria - which was the street that I had taken earlier to go to Señor Mercado's house. Along the way, I saw a handful of my classmates, along with them Quintino, running towards my direction. From a distance, I can hear the fierce exchange of gunfire as I drew closer to the school. Señor Mercado's patients live just around this street, so it is likely I'll run into him sooner or later.
"Get away from here, Francisco! The tulisanes are coming!" warned Quintino as he sprinted, waving his arms about as if trying to disperse a flock of ducks.
An interesting thing indeed, because Señor Mercado warned me of this days ago and I never expected this to happen so soon.
Moments later, Quintino slowed down in his pace to approach me.
"It's not safe here Kiko! The tulisanes are numerous and they are armed to the teeth. Come away!" Quintino invited, tugging the sleeve of my coat.
"I can't go just yet. Señor Mercado is out there! I need to find him!" I refused.
"You're going out there to look for your former employer?! Are you crazy?! He's as good as dead! You're not even armed! The plaza is going to be overrun any minute now! Let us flee while we still can!" Quintino invited once more, who seemed eager than ever to flee.
"You go on ahead to safety. I can't leave without him. Señor Mercado was like a father to me. I owe the man a lot." I told him, giving him a tap on the shoulder.
Quintino gave a huge sigh. "You are spectacularly stupid for someone with such high intellect, do you know that?!" he teased, as he responded with a tap on my shoulder. "Well, it's not as if I can persuade you otherwise, eh? I'll go on ahead and lay low. Meet me in the panciteria once you're out...and don't die! We still have a thesis coming up!"
"Why, thank you for such words of inspiration!" I sarcastically replied.
Quintino gave a smirk. "I'll be off now, my friend. May God keep you safe." he replied as he took off without another word.
Minutes pass, and the fighting seemed to become more intense. I can see around fifteen soldiers marching double-time on the far side of Calle Victoria. On the other hand, the tulisanes - which seemed to number around twenty, charges towards the soldiers' direction, brandishing their bolos and firing their rifles in succession.
This street is obviously compromised, and I have no choice but to take other routes. Luckily, Calle Cabildo seems to be clear of hostile forces, and I can take this path to cut through Recoletos and go to Calle Escuela where Pepay the dancing girl lives. I know for a fact that Señor Mercado makes his rounds around this area because I sometimes go there to...never mind. What matters is that this woman may be one of Señor Mercado's patients, and she may give me clues about his whereabouts.
With this in mind, I started to make my way across Calle Cabildo. The street was so awfully quiet and barren despite the fighting in the distance that it felt like I was walking into the darkest depths of Hades itself. However, as I just passed one of the cafés in the area, the silence was broken with the sound of feet shuffling in the distance. Being on high alert, I immediately made myself scarce and hid behind one of walls of the structures lining the streets, which happen to belong to the café I once frequented during my earlier years in college. Carefully, I moved my head outside the cover of the wall to peek, and to my surprise, I saw a man wearing a salakot, armed with a revolver and a bolo. The man walked slowly as he prowls along the street in the most conspicuous manner. His head moves slowly from left to right, as if scanning the surroundings carefully.
From where I hid, I tried to study his features as much as I can, and from what I can gather, he seems to be just a frail old man. His loadout tells me he must've been one of the tulisanes, but something tells me that his presence here is not by accident.
"You can come out now!" he announced with confidence in Tagalog.
I froze, as I never expected to be found out that easily. But I didn't waver, and held my current position in the hopes of eluding the man.
"You, hiding behind the café, you can come out from that wall now, lad. You're not fooling me." he declared courageously.
My heart throbbed at this response. Now, he's pinpointed my exact location. But I decided not to move, as he may just be bluffing.
Seconds later, he fired a shot, chipping off a small chunk of the wall where I was hiding. "I know you're there, lad. This is my last warning. Come out with your hands in the air or I'll have no choice but to make you."
I felt my heart beat faster, as I feel that I'm no longer safe behind my cover. I'm not going out there! That man wears a salakot and is armed with a bolo and a revolver - that man is the rumored murderer 'El Partidista', The Partisan of Intramuros! I heard from the soldiers chitchatting in the cockpits one time that this man has already killed around twelve Spanish denizens from this city, and their bodies all chopped up into pieces! There is no way in hell I'm giving myself up!
"I'm going to count to three, and if you won't come out, I can't promise the next warning shot to not hit a limb or two." he threatened as I heard the sound of his soles against the ground slowly moving closer towards me.
I looked around my surroundings for anything I can use, but found nothing other than loose brick on the corner of the wall. I tried to slowly reached for the brick, but the man fired another shot, almost glancing my forefinger.
"Don't even think about resisting, boy!" he commanded as he continued his slow, confident walk towards me. "I will not say this again, come out with your hands in the air or I will shoot you!"
"All right, all right! I surrender!" I immediately announced as I raised my hands above my head and slowly emerge from my hiding spot, having found no more alternative. Obviously, I can't fight back, and all the more can I not run from him. He is a damn good marksman, and I'll be taking a huge risk of being shot at if I ran away from him.
As I stepped into the open, the man immediately pulled the hammer of his revolver, perhaps to ready his weapon in case I tried to do something funny.
As if this wasn't overkill enough.
"What's a student like you doing out in the streets in the middle of the night? Speak quickly!" he ordered.
"I...I was just going home, señor." I lied nervously. "I'm just passing through, I swear I mean you no harm!"
"Ahh, yes, and going towards the direction of the fighting, I see. Everybody else is going the other way. Of all the people that I've met, you're the only one with a strange and, quite suspicious sense of self-preservation. So drop the act, young man! Surrender the opium! I know you're hiding it in your pockets somewhere!"
Needless to say, I was taken aback by this preposterous accusation. But why would the infamous 'El Partidista' look for packets of opium?
"I...I don't have any opium with me, sir. I swear! You can search me if you want!" I answered, as this was the only thing I knew to preserve my life, even for just a bit longer.
"Let me see." he replied as he closed in to apprehend me, his revolver still pointed at my head.
He then sheathed his bolo, and started thoroughly searching through my entire person. He even went as far as feeling for the opium near my groin, but found nothing.
To his dismay - and to my great relief, he disarmed his revolver and stowed it in a pouch near the sheath of his bolo.
"You're clean. You can put your hands down now." he said.
Upon this response, I lowered my hands and silently let out a sigh.
"What in the hell are you thinking, lad?! Going out during a time like this?! I could've killed you!" he sternly reprimanded.
One minute, he was trying to kill me, and now he sounds like my father. What the hell is going on?!
"W-wha...what is going on, sir?" I inquired, genuinely confused by what's happening right now.
"A bloodbath, to put it simply." he bluntly replied as he pulled out the two empty casings and replaced them with new bullets. "Now, make yourself scarce while you can. The revolutionaries are not so considerate as I am."
"Y...you're not going to kill me?" I asked nervously.
"What? Of course not." he immediately retorted. "On second thought, the nature of my work demands utmost secrecy, so..."
He then quickly drew his revolver and pointed it at my head. I stood entirely still at that moment, and it felt like I was about to lose control of my bladder.
"You now have seen my face. I cannot allow anyone with that kind of knowledge run along freely." he declared. "Unless you have something to convince me to keep you alive, that is."
I paused for a while, trying to look for an answer to give him. "Sir, I swear I would not tell a soul about this encounter. I swear it with my life." I told him.
"The last person who told me that, I had to hunt him down - and he was my first ever kill in my career. Give me a better excuse to not to put a bullet in your skull, lad." he retorted as he pulled the gun's hammer and sliding his finger on the trigger. "Well, since I see no more alternatives, I'll give you two choices: come with me if you want to live...or don't. In which case, you die. That is my offer. You want to keep your head, you have to come with me."
"What, you mean you'll take me hostage?" I asked, repulsive of this offer.
"I won't call it being a 'hostage'. More of...as a squire." he replied in a rather soothing tone.
"And join you in your vigilantism? I can't do that!" I complained.
"Well, that's fine by me. I'll just kill you, then." he replied as he pressed the barrel of the gun against my head. "I don't have to look after witnesses-"
"W-w-wait! All right, all right! I'll go with you, sir. J-just don't kill me!" I pleaded.
"See? That wasn't so hard, is it?" he answered, quickly withdrawing his gun. He then took out a pocket watch from one of his trouser pockets and flipped the cover open with his right hand, which is quite unusual because he dresses like a farmer.
"Twenty-six minutes past one o'clock. We only have almost an hour to get to the harbor." he exclaimed.
"W-what for? Why do we need to get to the harbor?" I asked.
"To fetch our ride, numbskull." he replied, with a bit of annoyance in his tone. "We'll have to go there on foot. If you try anything funny, I'll shoot you. Understood?"
"U-u-understood, sir." I replied with haste.
"Then, what are we waiting for? Vamonos!" he commanded, pointing towards the end of Calle Cabildo.
I'm sorry, Señor Mercado. I just hope you made it out safely.