Balance (70 page)

…

“Ma’am, their comms have gone
off-
line
.
”
A
technician
informs
Ms. Smith
.

“We expected that.  How do their biochips look?”  Mr. Black
asks
.

“So far, all looks good
;
temp
, pulse and location st
rong.” the technician
details
.

…

The auditorium goes
silent
. 

A man walks onto
the
stage,
Michael recognizes him immediately as Leonidas Drako
s. 
A
t least seventy years-
old with peppered black hair
and piercing blue eyes.  Handsome in has advanced years, his strength palpable,
he
radiates
a presence
that
command
s
the
audience
.  Walking
back and forth across the stage
,
resembling the
tense
pacing of
a caged tiger,
Drakos is
well aware
the crowd includes several trained killers instructed to end his life.
 
To
Michael
, it appears
as if
Drakos
is
trying to illicit
an
aggression with his pacing
, presenting himself to his would be assassin
.
Since no one reacts
in a
hostile manner, Michael suspects the other agents in attendance are to wait, s
imilar to
he and Rena
,
until
Drakos
delivers his
message
.
  Determine its importance before proceeding to an end game
.

Leonidas makes the same assumption,
commencing
with
his
dissertation
,
“Ladies and G
entleman…
You have come here to
learn
of a discovery.  Now
,
I must point out
t
his discovery was actually
made
several years ago
,
by a colleague of mine.  This
revelation
,
the identification of a ‘
Nexus
’,
is
a
point in time were a series of conditions align to create a structural relationship
.  This relationship
so
tenuous,
so dependent upon
its interwoven conditions … strategic
actions
perpetrated
upon this
structure
c
ould
in effect, initiat
e
a domino effect
…
T
h
eoretically triggering its collapse.
”  Drakos p
auses
at
the
far
left side
of the stage
,
away from
Michael and Rena.  A
s
if addressing someone specific, he continues,
“The
con
ditions I speak of
are
a
development in the structure of the
Elite
socio-economic
caste
.  The domino effect we have identified
would
result in the complete
destabilization and
collapse of the
Elite
financial
system
.”

As if signaled, a man in the front row stands
and
point
s
a
hand
gun at the stage
.

A shot
rings out
,
incredibly close to Michael.
T
he
gun
man falls forward over the edge of the balcony
, to the seat
s
below
.

Rising
quickly
,
Michael turns to
locate the source
of the gunfire
,
at the same time
noticing
one of his
handguns
missing.  He knows immediately, before even seeing her.  Rena stand
s
in the aisle
,
his gun
pointed
in the direction of the fallen man.
 
As fast as he can, Michael grabs her
around the waist
and bounds for the door
, covering the distance in seconds, his superior physical traits augmenting his reaction
and
speed
.  Several
more
shot
s
ring out behind
them
.

Rena
can hear
gunfire
and screams as Michael drags her to the
emergency exit
. 
As
she
had expected, chaos ensues. 
H
ear
ing
people en
tering the stairwell from below,
Rena
grab
s
Michael
’
s hand and leads him up
the stairs
.
 
R
unning in through the
fourth floor
access
, arou
nd a corner, she races
down a long hallway
.

Confused, yet still f
ollowing
,
Michael
can tell
she’s
looking for something as
they
speed
down the hall.  Finally reaching the last door
on
the
right, she
stops and turns
,
placing
her finger to her
lips
, indicating s
omeone
’s
presence
in the room.  How she knows,
he
hasn’t a clue.
  Rena
pantomimes a
strategy.
 
Nodding in agreement,
Michael moves behind
her,
remov
ing
two throwin
g knives from his boot
.

Looking
over her should
er
at him
, Rena
winks
, then turns to the door and
kicks
it
open,
immediately
dropping to the side, clearing the lane of fire
.

Almost instantly,
Michael
identifies the sniper
across the room.
B
efore
the gunman
has a chance to locate the source of the sudden
commotion
,
t
wo
knives
strike
him
in rapid succession,
the first
above
the knee, the second in the shoulder. 
The sniper falls to the floor
,
losing
his rifle
in the process, tossing
it
across
the room
.

Rushing
forward
into the
suite
,
Michael
roll
s
across the floor, making himself as small and
difficult a target as possible.
A
s he crosses the
distance
to
the
fallen threat
,
he scans the rest of the
space
,
finding it empty
.
  Reaching the fallen sniper, Michael
secures the injured assailant, and then
drags
him across the floor, unceremoniously depositing
him onto a chair from the kitchenette.

Q
uickly
closing
and locking the door
, Rena
w
alk
s
confidently across the
expanse, p
ointing
Michael’s
gun
at
the
man
’s
head
.  Standing before the
foreign agent
,
she
indicat
es
he’
s not to make a sound.
 
“
Michael
, I need you
to grab a towel from the bathroom.
”
She
instructs, never taking her attention from their prisoner.

Confused
,
with
his
ire mounting
,
Michael
stalks off
to the adjacent bathroom.  Moments later he
return
s
,
a plush white towel in his hands.

“Now
tear it into strips.
”
Rena orders coarsely.

W
ithout comment, he shreds the
cloth, using the activity to
diffuse
his
anger
.

Rena grabs a strip
and
brutally
shoves into
the
sniper’s
mouth
. 
A
second
,
she
twist
s
and
use
s
to tie his hands behind his back.
  Pulling
the
knives
from
his
leg and arm,
she
drags
the
prisoner
to
the
closet.  Handing the man to Mic
hael, she
ventures
in
side
.
F
inding what she was looking for
,
Rena
opens a hidden panel
leading to a small
hidden
r
o
om.

Michael and the sniper look at each other, shocked and
com
pletely
confounded
.  Stepping out,
she
directs them both inside and closes the panel.

“Okay we can talk,
th
e
room is sound
proof
.
  If someone comes in, we won’t be discovered.
”

“How in the hell would y
ou know that?” Michael responds,
his
anger
roiling
.

Rena hesitates, this next piece of information is going to
stun
the man she has known and loved for the better part of two years.  She smiles,
trying to reassure him,
“Because Michael, I picked this hotel.  I know it quite well.”

Michael stare
s
at
her
, unable to say a word, in utter shock.

“Michael …
Do you trust me?”

“What?”  H
e responds
as if waking from a dream
.

“Do you trust me?”
A g
rin forms, her eyes taking
on
mischievous
candor
.

Studying the
woman,
he has come to love and trust
unconditionally;
he
returns the grin
, “With my life
… A
lways
.
”