Page 81 of The Archer


  “There’s some serious fucking trouble coming our way.”

  LXIV.

  SHAWN didn’t wake until he was halfway to the floor. He landed on his back with a whuff and lay there, stunned, until he got his bearings and regained his breath.

  Remy had rolled and shoved at him, which was why he was now on the floor

  with a swiftly developing headache instead of being spooned up behind Remy’s warm body. But that didn’t explain why Remy stood at the door with a gun held up by his shoulder and his head cocked, listening to something Shawn couldn’t even begin to hear.

  Shawn rose to his elbows and raised an eyebrow inquiringly at the other

  man. Remy brought his finger to his lips and shook his head. He then held up three fingers, frowned, and held up four.

  Shawn got quickly to his feet and retrieved his gun from its holster, and he

  stood against the wall opposite the bunks, waiting for Remy’s cue.

  A soft knock sounded, which threw Shawn briefly, since attackers didn’t

  normally knock first to get your okay. Remy looked at him quizzically before curtain to peer out.

  “Jesus!” the younger man hissed just before he threw the door open and

  pulled their visitors into the compartment.

  Shawn watched in confusion as Gray carried the little server girl from earlier

  into the room. Nikolaus followed them, looking worried and carrying an armload of bed sheets, and Brandt and Carl struggled through the door, carrying Thiago’s limp body between them.

  “What happened?” Shawn asked hastily as they laid Thiago on the ground

  and Gray set the unfortunate girl on the lower bunk with a hissed warning to keep quiet. Remy closed the door and looked at all of them in confusion.

  “We have a serious problem,” Gray told them grimly as he straightened up

  and turned around.

  “That’s rather obvious, numbnuts, what the bloody hell have you done?”

  Shawn demanded angrily.

  “I don’t happen to be the cause of this particular disaster, asshole!” Gray

  shot back angrily.

  “Both of you, shut it!” Carl said authoritatively as he knelt beside Thiago.

  “Listen. Thiago’s turned us in. I caught him on–”

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  He was interrupted by the rest of them all spewing questions at once and

  protesting that Thiago would never turn them in, but Shawn noticed that Gray was

  silent. Just that fact was enough to tell him that Thiago was entirely capable of turning on them. If his own lover and right-hand man wasn’t defending him, then there had to be a good reason.

  “Shut up!” Carl shouted in a frustrated, dangerous growl. They all fell

  obediently silent. “I caught him on the phone with Thierry St. John. I heard him say Thierry’s name and tell him that he was short on time. I heard him tell Thierry to call off the Hunters, something about Gray not wanting any part in something, and to find Barclay. He then told Thierry where we were heading and to have men waiting in

  D.C. He gave specific instructions not to have us killed and to end the mission. Even if he was trying to protect us, he fucking turned us in, all the same.”

  “Why would Thiago turn us in? To Thierry, of all people?” Nikolaus asked

  desperately. “Isn’t he the… the bad one? I mean, wouldn’t Thiago have called

  Wallace or Bryce-Johnson if he were giving himself up?”

  “There was….” Gray trailed off and looked suddenly at the girl, curled up

  and cowering in the corner trying to escape everyone’s attention. At least she wasn’t screaming her head off. “Fuck me, what are we going to do with her?”

  “Kill her,” Shawn ordered immediately. “We don’t need to deal with her.”

  “Hold on,” Remy urged as he stepped over Thiago’s body and shoved Gray

  to the side. “Come here, darling,” he said softly.

  The girl was trembling now and her eyes were darting back and forth

  between Remy and Shawn like a cornered animal. Shawn narrowed his eyes at her

  and she shrank further into the corner.

  “Shawn! Stop it!” Remy scolded as he turned to glare at Shawn, and he held

  his hand out to the girl. “It’s all right, lovely, no one will hurt you. You remember me, non? From before?”

  She was practically hyperventilating now, but she looked at Remy carefully

  and held out a shaking hand to him. He took it firmly in his own and pulled her out from under the bunk.

  “P-please, don’t hurt me,” she begged in a small voice. “I haven’t heard

  anything. I haven’t seen anything. I won’t tell a soul, I swear, just, please, let me go.”

  Remy frowned and looked over at Shawn. They all knew she couldn’t be let

  go. Regardless of what she promised, she would eventually tell. And if the people after them knew where they were, she could be in danger as well. But what to do with her?

  “All right, sweetheart,” Remy said in a deep, soothing voice. “Come with

  me, then, we’ll put you somewhere nice and safe ’til we get this straightened out.”

  “No! Please!” she cried in a near-panic as she dug her heels into the floor

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  and pulled at his arm as he tried to lead her to the door. “I’ll be good! I promise!

  Please, God, don’t kill me!”

  Remy clucked at her disapprovingly and pulled her to him forcefully,

  picking her up easily and turning to look at the others.

  “Don’t start without me,” he requested as Shawn opened the door for him

  and looked both ways down the deserted aisle to make certain it was clear. As Remy passed with the now softly crying girl in his arms, he looked at Shawn and said, “I won’t be long.”

  Shawn nodded and watched him walk down to the next compartment and

  open it, setting the girl down and ushering her inside with a gentle hand on her back.

  Remy paused before he followed her in and looked back at Shawn. Shawn nodded at

  him and Remy offered him a sad smile before disappearing into the room.

  LXV.

  NIKOLAUS wanted to pace, but the small, crowded space didn’t allow for it.

  “What’s Remy doing with her?” he asked worriedly. If it had been one of the

  others, Nikolaus wouldn’t have worried about her safety, but knowing that Shawn and Remy were both ruthless killers who had been assassinating innocent people for years didn’t make him very comfortable in regards to the girl’s fate.

  “She’ll be fine,” Shawn said in hoarse voice.

  Shawn, for one, did not look fine. Nor did Gray or Carl. In fact, even Brandt

  looked overly disturbed. Everyone was tense and tired enough that no one had the

  heart to tell the big Australian to stop flicking his new silver lighter compulsively. It was a nervous habit, just like Nikolaus’s urge to pace, and Shawn’s constantly

  running his fingers through his hair, and Gray’s cracking his knuckles.

  Carl didn’t seem to have a nervous habit. That was disturbing in and of itself.

  Remy slipped quietly back into the compartment just as Thiago began to stir.

  They’d tied the older man with the bed sheets Nikolaus carried in, and they left him on the hard floor where Carl and Brandt dropped him.

  “Let’s get to it,” Remy said in a soft voice as he eased the door shut.

  “Did you hurt her?” Nikolaus demanded.

  “If I did, it wasn’t intentional,” Remy answered calmly as he eyed Thiago

  warily. “Now. What’s going on?”

  “There are some details you all need to be made aware of,” Gray started as

  he stared down at Thiago, who was groaning and thro
wing his head from side to side as he fought his way back to consciousness.

  “Is this something I’ll need to sit down to listen to?” Remy asked in

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  exasperation.

  “If you mean will it take a long time, then no,” Gray answered snappishly.

  “But if you’re that delicate, then maybe Shawn needs to hold your hand while I talk!”

  “Fuck you, Boss,” Remy snapped. “I’ve defended you at every fucking turn,

  but you’re starting to get up my craw! I’d just as soon shoot you as put up with this shit anymore!”

  “Can we fight later, please?” Shawn asked in a tired voice.

  Remy looked at Shawn with a frown, and Gray cleared his throat

  apologetically.

  “When I was under, I kept hearing rumors,” Gray explained without

  preamble. “Rumors about the six of you, about vigilantes tearing through the ranks, and about the Archer.”

  “What kinds of rumors?” Brandt asked curiously as he sat down against the

  wall beside Thiago’s head and put his hand on the man’s forehead to still his fitful movements.

  “That he had been working with St. John all along,” Gray answered

  regretfully as he sat on the edge of the lower bunk beside Nikolaus. “That his goal was not to free agents, but to get rid of them in any way possible in order to weaken the legitimate side of the Organization.”

  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell us this earlier?” Carl demanded angrily.

  “Why would I?” Gray shot back. “I don’t know any of you. None of you

  trust me, anyway!”

  “I did,” Remy pointed out quietly.

  Gray’s mouth snapped shut and he looked up at Remy apologetically.

  “I know,” Gray said softly. “But I knew about you, too, that you worked for

  the Underground. I couldn’t let on about all I knew. I didn’t know how much you

  were really involved until it was too late.”

  Remy pressed his lips together into a thin line and nodded in understanding.

  An inexplicable sadness washed over Nikolaus. Gray had well and truly been

  working without a net this entire mission, all the while thinking he had an ally in Thiago. To learn that Thiago wasn’t what he said he was, after all that time, must have crushed the other man. Nikolaus put a tentative hand on Gray’s shoulder, and when Gray didn’t shake it off, he squeezed slightly and left it there.

  “Go on,” Shawn said softly.

  “Well, there’s not much more to tell,” Gray said with a shrug. “It’s hard to

  gauge the accuracy of rumors that come through that pipeline, since it’s so fucking secretive.”

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  Nikolaus noticed that Gray refrained from calling the rumor pipeline ‘the

  underground,’ and he thought that was probably for the best in this environment.

  “But there was a lot of static over it,” Gray continued with a sigh. “The

  Archer’s people thought they’d been duped. They were angry. They wanted revenge,

  on Thiago and Thierry and anyone else they thought had been part of the deception.”

  “What does all this have to with Evan Washburn being in Prague?” Nikolaus

  asked curiously.

  Remy perked up and Gray sighed heavily.

  “Why’d you get all excited over that?” Nikolaus prodded.

  “One of the messages floating around was for a meeting in Prague,” Gray

  explained. “It was to discuss Thiago’s– well, the Archer’s position. When you said Washburn had been there, I knew I had to tell Thiago what I’d been hearing. If I’d known it was all true, I wouldn’t have bothered looking for him.”

  “Is that where you got Prague, Remy?” Nikolaus asked.

  “How the fuck should I know?” Remy shouted with a frustrated flop of his

  hands. “I heard him say Prague!” he said with a jab of his finger at Brandt.

  “You may have heard Prague, mate, but I said fucking Tokyo,” Brandt

  maintained with an amused smile.

  “Son of a bitch,” Remy murmured in frustration.

  Nikolaus caught a sad smile on Shawn’s face. “Wouldn’t be the first time

  you lucked out in something like that,” the man said fondly.

  “Son of a bitch!” Remy huffed again as he stomped his foot.

  “Anyway,” Gray muttered in a confused voice. “I didn’t put much stock in it

  at first, I mean, there was really nothing to the rumors. But when I heard that

  Washburn was in Prague instead of the States, I knew we were in trouble. It means all those rumors were true, and it means people are coming for us from every side.”

  “The States? What about Tokyo?” Nikolaus asked in confusion.

  “I knew he was one of ours, of course,” Brandt said as he brushed Thiago’s

  long hair from his forehead tenderly and looked at the older man in concern. “I wasn’t going to give you his real location, now was I?”

  “Has anyone in this fucking room said a single word that was true in the last

  five fucking months?” Remy asked in exasperation.

  “I have,” Shawn said softly as he looked up at Remy with a soft smile.

  Remy stopped in mid-hissy fit and looked at the other man sadly.

  Nikolaus didn’t know what the hell was going on there, but the two men

  looked to be fighting once again. That was just fucking great.

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  “I don’t understand, Boss,” Carl sighed with a frown. “What does it matter to

  us if half the fucking world met in Prague?”

  “Well, if Washburn was there, then others were, too,” Gray said assuredly.

  “And I would bet my life that it’s not been the Organization after you all this time.

  It’s been Thiago’s boys.”

  LXVI.

  “BARCLAY,” Thiago croaked in the silence that followed Gray’s last assertion. He

  cracked one eye open painfully and cleared his throat. “It’s been Barclay,” he said in a hoarse voice.

  Brandt patted him on the head gently and motioned to Carl to wet a

  washcloth for him. Thiago was motionless as he lay on the floor, and he looked up at Carl accusingly.

  “You hit me,” he muttered in disbelief.

  “You gave us up,” Carl countered as he handed Brandt the wet cloth.

  “You didn’t have to hit me,” Thiago said as he squirmed a little. “With a

  fucking phonebook. Twice. That was... afano.”

  “I have to say, I’m not all too sorry about it,” Carl admitted. “At least it

  won’t leave a bruise,” he added in a mockingly upbeat tone that Thiago didn’t seem to find comforting.

  “And I didn’t give us up,” Thiago insisted as Brandt wiped gingerly at the

  blood on his lip. “I was trying to save all our lives,” he asserted as he looked from Carl to Gray. “Gray,” he whispered pleadingly. “I’m sorry,” he croaked when Gray

  locked eyes with him. “I have no excuse for what I did. I know I hurt you.”

  Gray clenched his jaw angrily and looked away, and Brandt saw Shawn and

  Remy exchange a confused glance. They didn’t have time to explain that ordeal to the others, though.

  “Doesn’t really matter now, does it?” Gray responded casually, though

  Brandt could clearly hear the hard edge to his voice. “We’re as good as dead, thanks to you and your little phone call.”

  “Not true,” Thiago protested in a hoarse voice. “I may have sold our souls

  temporarily to Thierry, but we won’t be killed.”

  “What do you mean?” Brandt asked.

  Thiago tu
rned his head and winced as he looked up at Brandt. “I was

  working for Thierry,” Thiago admitted in a soft voice.

  “And you had the fucking nerve to have us tied up before?” Remy yelled

  angrily as he pointed at Shawn and then himself.

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  “What did he say?” Shawn asked in frustration. The man was doing much

  better with reading lips, apparently, to the point that Brandt kept forgetting he couldn’t hear much.

  “He says he’s been working for St. John all this fucking time!” Remy said as

  he jabbed a finger in Thiago’s direction. “The whole Archer operation has been

  backed by the Underground from the fucking beginning! What was the purpose, Thi?

  Weaken the other side and then take it over?”

  “Basically,” Thiago admitted with a groan as his head lolled to the side.

  Brandt watched him sympathetically. If Carl had hit him with a phonebook,

  not once, but twice, the man was going to have one mother of a headache.

  “So, are you a clean agent or an Underground agent?” Carl asked in a

  frustrated voice Brandt had rarely heard the man use.

  “I was clean,” Thiago said slowly, his eyes never leaving Gray’s rigid form.

  “Until about five years ago. Just before the raid.”

  “All this fucking time,” Gray said with a disgusted shake of his head.

  “I’m sorry, querido, I–”

  “Don’t,” Gray ground out angrily. “Don’t ever call me that again.”

  The entire compartment was silent, and Brandt felt that this was vaguely

  familiar territory for them all. The similarities between Thiago and Gray’s

  relationship and Shawn and Remy’s relationship were beginning to lean just this side of annoying.

  Especially when happy endings seemed so hard to come by.

  LXVII.

  “SO, what, the raid was a setup?” Remy asked as he began to place the puzzle pieces together.

  “Yes. It was a way of kick-starting the men Thierry had chosen,” Thiago

  answered in a defeated voice.

  “I don’t get it, why didn’t he just use us?” Remy asked as he looked at