Out of the corner of his eye, Rea spotted Gears picking up a potted plant. His friend heaved the container toward where Rea struggled with the hitman. The assassin pinned under him was fighting him hard. The killer didn't catch on to what Gears was doing.
Rea stunned his attacker with a punch to the face. He moved in time to have the pot fly past his head. The pot smashed into the front of the crazy guy's skull.
Rea looked over at Charlie. The sorry guard panted and looked sheepish.
He then glanced around for Josh. Josh hid next to one of the greenhouses. Rea wanted to hit him in the face as well. These two men were a waste of space. Rea should've never let them stay. They were hired by his dad before he died. If his dad were here, they would be gone by now.
Taking a deep breath, Rea took his hands off the killer. He got up from the floor and pressed his hand to his side. As soon as he let the man go, the stranger slumped into the mud. The assassin was knocked out cold.
Rea took another calming breath. He guessed from the stabbing fire in his side that he'd been shot. For the moment, he ignored the insistent burning. He took a closer look at the man in the dirt. Something wasn't right.
With a sweep of his arm, Rea plucked the tight black hood from the man's face. A long dark ponytail tumbled out.
"That's a girl. You just punched a girl… in the face." Gears sounded horrified. He stared over his shoulder at the young woman lying on the ground. "And I threw a plant at her. Hell has a special place for men who hit women."
"Yeah, men who hit women go to hell, but that's not a woman. That is a killer." Rea grabbed the black hood and studied the viewscreen mask. He noticed Gears watching him. "This has thermal vision," he stated as he tossed the cover to Gears.
Gears caught the mask. "I hit a girl with a plant. Maybe I should pray or say sorry?"
Rea ran his hand through his hair.
"This isn't a girl. This is an assassin." He snatched the black hood back. "She shot me. Stop saying, girl." A brief dizzy spell hit him. Gears put his arm out and steadied him.
"Maybe you should lie down. I should look at your side." Rea's injury appeared to have pulled Gears out of his concerns about hitting women. Rea leaned on the doctor's arm.
Eric was in the doorway, looking confused and pale. The hand Eric was using to hold his large puppy shook.
"Are you okay, Eric? Gears, maybe you should look at Eric."
Eric gave a dismissive shake of his head. "I'm doing better than you at the moment."
"Yeah." Gears accepted more of his weight. "I think Eric will be fine. Let's check you out."
While Gears steered him toward the door, he glanced back at the woman on the floor.
His friend was right. The assassin was just a girl. She looked in her early twenties. She probably had a concussion. Gears would have to take a look at her too. When she woke up, he would have to interrogate her. That didn't sit well with him. It bothered him that he was the one who'd hit her. That didn't sit with him either. He couldn't think like that. Rea had to protect the base. He had to protect Gears. She wasn't a girl. She was the person who tried to kill him. That was all there was to it.
"Gears, you and Eric and I can go back to my room." Rea swayed. He motioned to Charlie and Josh. "Charlie and Josh, take the hired gun to room one-eleven. She'll probably be out for a while, but just in case, stay armed. Don't kill her. I want to question her. Tie her up."
Charlie and Josh came over to where the girl was slumped in the mud. They awkwardly hoisted her up and started out the door. Charlie was the taller of the two. He did most of the carrying. Josh followed along like a lost child pretending to be helpful.
Rea scowled after them. He clenched his jaw. Why did he think having her go with the two of them was a terrible idea? Nothing he could do about it now. More blood spilled out of the gunshot wound.
Lightheaded, he leaned on Gears again. He stepped out into the hallway to head to his bedroom. He couldn't believe he was worried about someone who had tried to kill him, or worse, someone who'd just tried to kill his friends. Right now, he needed to focus on getting cleaned up. When he was better, he would interrogate her. Hopefully, she would answer questions with a minimal amount of problems. He didn't want to hurt her. He just needed to know why there was an assassin on his base.
As the three of them walked down the hall, Rea started to think more about what Eric had said about being the next president. He wouldn't be more than a figurehead, a puppet, but maybe she'd come to kill Eric. Eric would be a likely target.
At first, when his friend had mentioned being president, Rea had a hard time believing him. He'd humored Eric when he talked about his concerns. He didn't know how to tell him the whole thing sounded ludicrous. Now he considered there might be something going on, and it either had to do with Eric or him, or maybe even Gears. He had to come up with why someone would sneak into an earth den. Either Eric had brought this with him, or for some unknown reason, someone was trying to kill him.
Rea had made very few enemies in his life. He had even fewer friends. Over the years, he was always alone. Most of the specifics about his life weren't out in the world. He protected the fact he was the son of the man who'd built these water bases. He only did that because he hated to be connected to such an awful person. Rea never hid his life due to the idea that someone might want him dead. That wouldn't make sense. The only thing he'd done with his life was train men to protect the bases and Gears. The water bases could be under attack, or someone could want to take them over. There were a lot of people who would love to kill Gears and command the primary water source for the C.T.O.N.A. People hired killers for all sorts of reasons, but why her and why now?