Chapter 32
"Crane," Harriet said with conviction. With my suspicion confirmed, rage boiled inside me. My gun was directly aimed at his chest. I fired and just then Crane leaned left toward the wall. My bullet hit him in the shoulder but that didn't stop him from lunging himself at me. He gripped my right hand(which was my gun hand) and he aimed his gun at me. Similarly I grabbed it and pushed him into the wall. Just then a guard came up.
"He's mine," Crane said. The guard fired his weapon at Harriet who was already retreating. Crane and I struggled with each other against the wall. I slammed his gun hand onto the wall and his gun flopped on the floor. With a groan he pushed and spun us. My back hit the wall and my gun dropped to the floor as well.
I put my leg under his groin and rammed my head in his face. I spun us again and slammed his back on the wall. He groaned and again we spun. He spun and tried to slam me to the wall but there was nothing but open space and immediately I knew we were falling down the set of steps that led to the lower deck. Bone shattering pain shot through me as we tumbled and rolled down the steps.
After a while I felt the flat metal floor and abruptly halted when the side of my head hit a steel pipe.
Pain. Unimaginable pain.
I remembered that I had a cracked rib before but now I was certain that the rib was probably broken. Crane groaned a short distance away from me and I struggled with my vision. He was slumped up against a pipe but already he was getting back on his feet though his knees were a little wobbly.
"You know I'm supposed to be mad at you…but it seems your angry at me infact you seem a lot more angrier than me," he chuckled and from his back he extracted a KA-BAR knife. I was getting on my feet as well and I took out the pocket knife which by comparison looked pathetic against his large blade.
"Oh how I love it when a fight ends with knives," he chuckled in ecstasy. He looked like a villain straight out of an Alex Rider novel.
I spat blood which had accumulated in my mouth and held my hands infront of me urging him to make a move. He smiled and came at my neck with such speed. I managed to save my neck but he quickly arched his blade downwards like a reverse C and his blade cut through my jeans and ripped a slit open on my thigh.
"Ah!," I groaned as I lost balance. I used him as leverage pushing him back in the process as I held myself up on one knee. My right hand slapped onto my bleeding thigh.
"I think this is gonna end quickly don't you agree?" he said
"Indeed I do," I replied and he came at me again.
I half-sidestepped and slashed at his belly. He recoiled but my blade cut a fabric of his shirt. He stood and checked his torn shirt before staring at me. I simply nodded as I stood up straight, ignoring the stringing pain coming from my thigh as well as my ribcage area.
This time we stood still for a brief moment before hurtling at each other. The sharp end of his blade came down from the left, it's pointed end facing me. I dodged left and as if in slow motion, I saw the knife cutting through the air along my chest. I grabbed hold of his wrist with my right hand that was crimson red and attempted to send the sharp end of my knife into his side.
Crane used his free hand to stop it right before shifting his hold on the KA-BAR knife into a back handed position. The tip pierced through my hand by a mere millimeter. I kicked the back of his knee with my left foot and he stumbled forward.
I had no choice but to release his wrist to avoid falling but the moment I did he passed the blade directly over the bridge of my nose. I moved back but not fast enough. Crane landed on one knee and in one swift move his blade cut across my abdomen just before my navel. I cradled my gashing wound as I fell on my knees. That moment of weakness gave him the opportunity to dig his blade on the back of my thigh, with a burning new pain I hit the elbow joint of his knife hand. A snapping sound rewarded my blow as well as Crane's howls as he recoiled his hand leaving the knife in my thigh. His free hand cupped his broken elbow as he knelt in front of me and I sent the tip of my own blade up his side and under the skin of his armpit. He yelled and pounded his fist at my wounded abdomen. I felt so much pain that I believed I was going to pass out but that didn't stop me from twisting the blade under his armpit. He parried my hand away while screaming in pain.
I was screaming too as I slowly tore his blade from the meat of my thigh. My hand trembling as I prepared to strike. The blade was dripping with my red blood meanwhile Crane moved his free hand tirelessly trying to get the blade from under it's armpit. I thrust the tip of the blade through the left part of his chest, stabbing his heart. His eyes were the size of golf balls as he looked at me in his last moments.
"You never should have laid a hand on her," I said as his whizzing form slumped to the floor. I used the pipe to support me as I got up. I heard something roll onto the metal floor a few inches away from Crane. I looked at it and my eyes widened when I realized it was a fragmentation grenade and I had only two seconds to spare. I raced for the steps.
You would be surprised just how much distance one can put in those seconds even with a torn belly, a broken rib and a stabbed thigh that was bleeding. I had only get up three steps when the grenade went off, the force of the explosion throwing my whole body five more steps up. It was a miracle that my body parts were still attached to my body. Air was pushed out of my lungs and my hearing was temporarily damaged. I felt like my whole body was used as the Rock's bowling ball. The ship shook and the steel pipes burst open releasing hot steam capable of burning your skin and it was rising fast, I had to move.
With the last of my strength I crawled up the last set of steps and fell onto the corridor's floor. Harriet appearing almost immediately.
"You look like shit," she told me as she carefully helped me up. She wrapped her arms around my waist and she pushed me onto her body with my arm slung over her shoulder.
"You also look like shit," I replied
"Yeah but you look like bigger shit," she said moving forward, me groaning and wincing altogether.
The Fallen Angel was slowly tilting to one side, the grenade must have punctured a hole below deck and was probably taking water in. She carried out to the side of the ship on the upper deck where I saw Will driving away on an engine propelled fishermen's boat. He wasn't very far yet so if someone could run fast enough they could intercept him. Harriet looked me warily. She was thinking exactly what I was.
"Go I'll be fine," I said as I held myself up using the guardrails. Harriet ran as fast as she could. Will's boat was just moving past the stern and I watched as Harriet hopped one foot on the rail of the stern's cross section and she leapt through the air, her arms forward like the Wonder woman. Will looked up, a shocked expression on his face as Harriet rammed into him, giving him a WWE style spear which caused the both of them to be knocked into the water and the boat to topple over the water it's hull facing the sky as day break came.
Nobody surfaced above the water and for a moment dread washed over me but it quickly got swept aside when Harriet emerged gasping for air and shaking her head to get the water out of her eyes. She swarm to the jetty pulling an unconscious Will with her. I heard police sirens as I painfully made my way off the partially sunken ship and stepped onto the jetty.
Late as always, I thought to myself.
Harriet made it out and she threw Will's form hard on the ground.
"Black widow and Wonder woman. Who knew?" I said as she helped me walk.
The Audi was a wreck of bullet holes and Rick, Aubrey and Dash walked towards us. Rick ran to us despite his injured hip.
I lifted myself from Harriet and said, "I think I'll manage."
Rick wrapped Harriet in an embrace and surprised me by kissing her.
"I thought I'd never get the chance to do that ever," he said smiling.
"You can do that again after you take me out," she replied smiling back.
"Ah, young love. It just warms your heart," Dash said from behind them to which Rick and Harriet rolled their eyes.
Police were running up and down the docks, the sun had come out, news crews were making their reports. We were all sitting at the back of an open ambulance. A bandage wrapped around my abdomen. The paramedics had said that the wound didn't go as far as the muscle so I was lucky, stab wounds on my thigh were taken care of and the issue of my broken ribs required I go to the hospital.
Vince Harold came up to us in person. He was wearing a dark suit, brown leather shoes and his grey hair was combed backwards.
"Well done everyone," he said, "glad your alive and everything worked out."
"So you got the codes?" I asked
"Yes but they have bullet holes in them thanks to Rick," he replied
"I wouldn't have done it better myself," I smiled. "So what happens now?"
"We'll keep you out of the news. You'll get medical help all paid for. You're house will be repaired and your friend will get a new car," Vince said.
"What about Tonitruum?" Harriet asked.
"Not much is known about them I'm afraid except that Tonitruum is Latin for Thunder"
"Which would explain the Lichtenberg tattoos," I said. For those who may not know, a lichtenberg figure is a sort of scar which one gets after surviving a lightning strike.
"Yes but it is more unlikely that this is the last we have seen of them," Vince replied. That was something I already knew but something else was bothering me. "What about Will?" I asked
"We'll take him in CIA custody and find out what he knows. For now you all need to get some rest," he said and just then the ambulance's engine hummed to life. The paramedic ushered us aboard and shut the rear door. As we started moving a song I was familiar with played on the radio, but it seems I wasn't the only one who knew it.
"Sometimes all I think about is you…late nights in the middle of June…heatwaves been stressing me out…," we all sang along. It was a good feeling knowing that we almost died during these last couple of days, knowing that you had friends to help even if it was under dire situations and short notice. We had gotten out alive and that was what mattered but even after all that we knew that somewhere out there was an organization so discrete that even the CIA had no clue about yet they had this much influence.
It was safe to assume that Tonitruum was going to make another play, sooner or later, we just had to hope that the next time we'd be ready. I'll admit that I'd love to stay out of it for now but eventually. I knew I was going to have to join the game.