“If you were awake then you should have said something!” Shawn shouted
angrily as he paced back and forth. Occasionally he would stop and glare at Brandt, and Brandt would cross his arms and glare right back.
“And when was I supposed to announce my presence, hmm? Before or after
you reamed him for having the audacity to actually contemplate our little predicament when none of us were bothering with it?” Brandt questioned sarcastically.
Carl cleared his throat pointedly, but they either didn’t hear him or took no
notice of it.
“We had him to worry about, in case you’d forgotten. And he’s not thinking clearly! And I’m not angry that you listened, just that you didn’t fucking back me up!” Shawn hissed as he stopped for one of his glares. “He wants to… to run off
and… and join the fucking Archer for Christ sake!”
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“And if we were put together just so we’d be easier to exterminate?” Brandt argued. “I’m with Dixie on this one, mate, I don’t want to go waltzing up to the
Facility and announcing my still-breathing status until I am one hundred-percent
certain that they won’t gun me down.”
“And what if this was a mole hunt, huh? What if they’re waiting for us to
turn up and clear ourselves? What if by going to ground we’re unknowingly
professing our guilt?”
“I’d much rather be professed guilty than dead,” Thiago murmured to Carl.
Carl shook his head absently and continued to watch the two men circle one
another like prizefighters as they argued. He really didn’t feel like stepping between them again. The last time he tried, he’d been conked on the head with a stick and then had his shirt sleeve set on fire. He reckoned that he and Thiago would probably just sit this one out and watch if it came to blows. It would make for fine afternoon
entertainment to watch them pound on one another again.
“Are you not even considering the possibility that we were set up?” Brandt
asked disbelievingly. “Not even–”
“Twenty years!” Shawn shouted suddenly, loud enough that Carl and Thiago
both jumped and Brandt snapped his mouth closed. Shawn ran his hand through his
hair and looked disgusted with himself as they all sat in the uncomfortable silence.
“Twenty fucking years, and they would just… I refuse to believe it.”
So that was Shawn’s problem. Part of it, anyway. He had lived over half his
life in the employ of the Organization. Carl couldn’t even begin to imagine how
betrayed he must feel. It was apparent then that Shawn knew Remy had probably
been right. He was arguing against himself, not Brandt.
When Remy’s quiet voice broke the silence that followed Shawn’s
mumbling Carl almost jumped out of his skin. Even injured, the kid could move like a ghost.
“We really only have one option, you know,” Remy said to them as he leant
against the doorframe that separated the two rooms. He had a blanket draped over his shoulders and was looking better than he had since before the explosion. Shawn
stopped his agitated pacing and turned around slowly to stare at him, and Thiago and Brandt seemed to be just as shocked as Carl had. Nikolaus stood slightly behind
Remy, looking a bit guilty for his failure to restrain the injured man.
“What are you doing up?” Shawn asked quietly, the anger and vehemence
suddenly replaced by concern.
“I’m fine. The wound has closed, and I can walk fine. The fever’s gone. If I
stay in that bed much longer, I’ll never get out of it. You know what we have to do, Shawn,” Remy murmured, switching gears so smoothly that his amenable tone never
even changed as he went from one subject to the other.
Shawn looked around at them all hesitantly and then rubbed his eyes in a
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tired manner as he sat down heavily onto the end of the bed. Brandt was still standing, looking as if he were about to pounce on Remy, but Carl suspected he was waiting for the younger man to fall over so he could catch him.
“We have to find the Archer,” Thiago provided softly. Carl looked over at
him and saw that he had his head down as if he were ashamed of suggesting it. He
looked up at Remy through his eyelashes, and Remy nodded grimly at him in return.
“We have to find the Archer,” Remy repeated.
Shawn opened his mouth but Remy took an unsteady step into the room and
placed his hand on Shawn’s shoulder. Carl watched in fascination as Shawn
immediately closed his mouth and slumped his shoulders as the hand made contact,
and he found himself wondering just which one of them was the leader of the pair.
Most of the time it seemed that Remy yielded to Shawn’s decisions without much of a problem, but when something major like this came up it appeared that Remy called
the game. It was an amazing dynamic.
“I know your objections. But regardless, Shawn,” Remy was saying
soothingly, “we only have two options here. Either we were betrayed or we’ve been wrongly accused. Now, if we were set up, then we have to join the Archer, for reasons of self-preservation, if nothing else. And if not, in that case we’ll still have to deliver the real Archer in order to clear ourselves.”
“Either way, we’ll have to track the bastard down,” Brandt added quietly.
“Do you have a plan?” Carl asked curiously. He had gotten to know Remy
pretty well, and he knew that the younger man was not only sharp as a tack, but that he was quick to formulate once he got going.
“Well, in order to track him down we’ll need equipment,” Remy said as he
wrapped the blanket around his shoulders tighter. “Weapons, communications,
money. Now I don’t know about all of you, but I keep a hide. Several, actually.
There’re only a few weapons and such, but combined there’s roughly eight hundred
thousand American dollars in them, and I’m betting we’ll need every penny of it.”
Carl watched the reactions of the others carefully. Nikolaus looked stunned.
As a tech, Carl assumed he didn’t have use for such a thing, or the resources to
accumulate that much money. Thiago and Shawn were both nodding, and Brandt was
unreadable. Carl had a hide in which he kept a variety of weapons. A large variety.
They would need those too. Weapons specialists didn’t make that kind of money,
though. Not many agents did.
“So you’re suggesting we hit each of our hides and clear them out?” Carl
asked as he wondered how Remy had accumulated that amount. Shawn, yes. He had
been in the business for a long time. But Remy?
“Yes,” Remy responded. “But not together.”
“Now, wait a minute,” Shawn objected hurriedly.
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“I know,” Remy soothed. “I know, but let me finish. How many are there?”
he asked the others.
“I have just the one,” Carl answered.
“I don’t have one,” Thiago told them. “It’s easier to use what I buy on the
street,” he explained as Remy and Shawn looked at him in surprise. “Most of my hits look like they’re drug related that way. But I’ve got money that can be accessed from just about anywhere.”
“As do I,” Brandt said as he finally sat down on the end of the bed. “I
acquire my equipment as I go. No need for a store of it anywhere.”
“And Shawn and I have six between the two of us,” Remy concluded finally.
“Ni
kolaus,” he said as he turned slightly to look at the other man. “Can you get into the main files again if you have the right equipment?”
“Of course,” Nikolaus responded readily. “Getting in is no problem. It’s
being detected that’s the hitch. Unless I have secure equipment or we’re really
fucking mobile it could get us all killed.”
“So if we went into say, one of those internet cafés, you could access the
main files of the Organization?” Thiago asked incredulously.
“Yes. I’m an insider, I know all the routes and codes and all that. The
problem, like I said, is not getting killed while you’re doing it. Two, maybe three seconds after I get in without my scramblers they’ll have our location.”
“Seconds?” Shawn asked incredulously.
“So,” Remy said, as if it should be obvious, “we’ll keep you moving. While
you do your thing, the rest of us will gather our resources and then we’ll regroup.”
“You mean separate?” Nikolaus repeated uncertainly.
Shawn was rubbing his face again, and Carl finally identified the gesture as
one of agitation.
“Yes,” Remy answered confidently. “We’ve got enough cash to get us all to
our various destinations, so–”
“We can’t split up,” Shawn interrupted in a low, patient voice. “We’d be as
good as dead on our own with both sides looking for us. That’s not to mention if
we’ve been black-flagged!”
“Black-flagged?” Nikolaus echoed.
"Wanted, dead or alive. They’ll put a bounty on us if they think we’re a
major threat,” Brandt supplied happily. Nikolaus looked devastated, but Brandt went on cheerfully. “Not only will O.R.G. agents be looking for us, but we’ll have
mercenaries after us as well. I’ve never had a price on my head, wonder how much
I’d be worth?”
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“A pinecone or two, I’d wager,” Shawn murmured.
“It’s all the more reason to scatter, Shawn,” Remy went on persistently.
“No.”
“But–”
“I don’t like it, Remy!”
“Hear me out,” Remy requested patiently. Carl had the feeling that they
played this game quite often. And he was pretty sure he knew who would win this
round. “We’ll split into three pairs. Shawn, you and Brandt will clear out your three hides, Thiago and Carl will get Carl’s as well as two of mine, and Nikolaus and I will get the last one and then lead them on a chase with the computers,” he explained with apparent relish. “We can meet again in three months, when everything has died
down.”
“Three months?” Nikolaus repeated again in horror. Remy nodded.
They were all silent for some time, and finally Carl watched Shawn’s
impassive face break into a slow, sad smile. “Well done, lad,” he sighed quietly.
“Even if I don’t like the idea, it’s a good one. If we’re doing this we need to be under way,” he added as he looked around at all of them for their opinion of the plan.
Thiago scratched his head and looked at Carl inquiringly. Carl shrugged in
return and they both turned to look back at Shawn, offering a simultaneous, “Sounds good.”
Brandt was nodding his head in acquiescence, but Nikolaus looked doubtful.
“By ‘chase’ you mean….”
“You and I will hop all over the map,” Remy said, turning to face Nikolaus
and taking him by the shoulders, obviously enjoying relating the scenario
dramatically, “and access the files at random intervals to get them chasing their tails.”
“Remy,” Shawn warned worriedly.
Remy turned to look at him, and Carl could see the light back in the young
man’s eyes. Here was another one who enjoyed his job. It was almost more
frightening than Brandt.
“That’s without a doubt the most dangerous part of this,” Shawn pointed out.
“Maybe–”
“Niko and I are the same age,” Remy argued. “We’ll attract much less
attention than you would if you were escorting him,” Remy said, anticipating what would obviously be an attempt by Shawn to get Remy into a more passive role.
Carl couldn’t blame him. It was the most dangerous role in that plan;
whoever was with Nikolaus would need to be extra alert in order to evade pursuit for three months while constantly accessing the system and guarding the inexperienced
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tech. It would be like running around and around a giant, poking him with a stick all the while. With Remy injured, it was risky, but Remy also made a good point.
“The less attention they attract the better, Shawn,” Carl observed out loud.
“We’ll be okay,” Remy said with a reassuring smile.
“Very well,” Shawn acquiesced finally as he looked at Remy. “Let’s hammer
out some details then.”
An hour later, they were all either sitting on the floor or hanging off the edge
of the bed as Brandt and Shawn argued over the details of Remy’s plan. Nikolaus and Remy lay on the bed with their faces propped in their hands, looking down at the rest of them. Brandt sat against the end of the bed, and Remy absently twirled the big man’s hair as he peered down at them. A map of the United States was spread out on the floor, and they all sat scowling at it and the many blue marks Shawn had made with Remy’s pen.
“They should get as far away as possible,” Thiago argued.
“That would put them in New Zealand, genius,” Brandt retorted. “Right in
the Organization’s back yard. Look, they know our last known location was
Whereverthefuck, North Dakota. I think if they pop up on the grid somewhere close it might give the impression that we took a bigger hit than we did.”
“Like we’re crawling, so to speak?” Shawn said as he stared at the map.
“Exactly,” Brandt nodded. “And if they do spot them, they’ll only be seeing
the two of them. Being underestimated in this case would be a good thing, I think.”
“It’s hard to reckon,” Remy mumbled as he furrowed his brow and looked
up at Shawn. Carl was of the opinion that the further they went the better, but Brandt did have a point. It would serve them better if their resources and their abilities were underestimated. “Shawn, let me see the pen,” Remy demanded suddenly, reaching out to take it as Shawn held it up and wagged it teasingly. Remy made an odd hissing
noise, like he was pushing air between his teeth. It was a surprisingly jarring sound, like someone would make to scare a wild animal.
Shawn handed the pen over and watched Remy fondly as he hefted himself
up onto his elbows and closed his eyes. Carl watched him curiously, wondering what the hell he was up to. Remy wrapped one arm around Brandt’s neck to steady himself and held the pen out. Then he jabbed down at the map, opening his eyes finally to look down at the little hole it had made.
“Salt Lake City,” Shawn announced as he peered down at the hole.
“Utah?” Nikolaus asked. They all turned to look at him.
“Got you a problem with Utah?” Remy asked him curiously.
“No. Sorry,” Nikolaus said as he shot Remy an apologetic glance. “I’m just
never present for the planning part.”
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Remy had the good grace to look ashamed. “Well… usually we don’t do it
with our eyes closed,” he mumbled as he rested his chin on the top of Brandt’s head.
Carl managed to suppress the smile that threatened, and he looked back at the ot
hers in time to see Thiago hide a grin behind his hand.
Shawn and Brandt still scowled at one another, though Brandt looked much
happier as a headrest than he had before, and Nikolaus and Remy intermittently
exchanged playful scowls and snickering.
Carl had a feeling that it was going to be a long three months for all of them.
He wondered how they would all make it through. He and Thiago seemed to
get along well enough, but Brandt and Shawn were eternally having a tiff, and when Remy and Nikolaus were together their combined mentality seemed to equal that of a twelve-year-old.
Also, if anything were to happen to one of them, the others wouldn’t know
until they reunited.
Carl didn’t even want to think about that.
“Should we have a way to communicate?” he asked hesitantly. “In case…
something happens to one of us?”
“We could… how about pre-paid mobile phones?” Nikolaus suggested
tentatively. Remy, Shawn and Thiago were all nodding.
“That’s good, Niko,” Remy said proudly. “The pre-paid thingies can be
traced if they try hard enough, but we’ll just use them in emergencies. And we can discard with every new city if the need arises.”
“I saw a sign down at that petrol station,” Shawn offered. “They sell them
there.”
“What else?” Carl asked as he twisted back and forth slowly, stretching his
back.
“When do we leave?” Nikolaus asked, looking at all of them in turn.
Silence and a regretful glance from Shawn to Remy met his query. Finally,
Shawn got slowly to his feet and looked down at them all.
“Get your things together, lads, we leave at first light.”
X.
SHAWN checked everything in the bags for the third time as the others sat on the
beds conversing softly. The other two bags were in the other bedroom, and Shawn
told himself that he needed to get those too before he forgot them. They only
contained clothing and toiletries, but he still needed to have everything together.