He could hear her now, as though she were right beside him.
"You know Shark, just say the word and I'll hook up a pair of wipers for your visor!"
He imagined the way her freckled nose would scrunch up as she smirked afterwards and it warmed him for a moment. He wanted to pull her close and smile at her with his big "sharky" grin and reply as he always had:
"I can see you just fine."
The motion of a kid riding by on his bike snapped Shark out of his trance and back to reality. He quickly got his bearing and realized that he hadn't paid a lot of attention to where he was wandering. You're slipping, Shark, he cursed himself. He was trying to not let Zona's abduction phase him this much but it seemed the harder he tried, the more he thought of it. Shark checked the internal display on his visor. Shit he muttered to himself, it was already 0634. He was finding it difficult to sleep at night and it was beginning to show. He had started to slow up a bit during Spydr's weapon's training. There was even an instance where she was able to whip his pistol out of his grip. It came as quite a shock to him. One second he was firing at a few targets the next thing he remembered he was holding nothing. He looked over at his student who just stared at him with a sad smile. She must have realized she made her point because she left, leaving him to let it sink in. He thought it had but here he was again, letting his emotions get control. He moved on down the street through the torrent of rain towards the direction he knew the shelter was.
When he got back to the shelter he tossed his drenched coat on the floor and quietly moved across the floor towards the couch where Spydr was sleeping. She was curled up in a ball under a heavy blanket, her chest rising and falling in a rhythmic pattern. He wasn't surprised that she slept so well. She was pushing herself very hard in training. She wanted to be helpful so badly that she would practice and practice until she couldn't lift a gun or stand on her own and fall over. One time she even fainted from exhaustion and he had to carry her to her bed so she could recuperate. The next day's conversation wasn't easy to forget. She came limping into the main room and said she was in a lot of pain and wondered if she could rest today. Shark was more than willing to allow her this and was actually surprised she mentioned it herself. She just sat down and stretched a while. After a few minutes she stopped and looked up with one of those listen-carefully-to-what-I-have-to-say looks.
"I'm sorry for pushing myself so hard since I arrived. I just felt like if I worked harder it would make you realize that I wasn't a lightweight. The longer I am unable to defend myself the longer I feel like a burden. I've seen how you glance at Langrotti to watch over me and I hate that. I wanted you to see me as an able bodied member of your team, not someone to baby-sit. However, I've noticed that all I've really done is make you worry by taking on more than I can handle. I shouldn't have to be able to shoot guns well or use martial arts well because we are a team and if there is one thing I've learned from this it's teams look out for each other. They make up for each other's weaknesses by holding them up with their strengths. Anyway, I'll settle down a bit and I'm sorry if I worried you." She then hopped up and after gritting her teeth for the pain she just sent through her legs, walked off.
It had taken him a while but Shark got what she had been doing. She had pushed herself to the limits as something of a point to him. Why she had done it that way confused him. That was twice now that she tried to prove a point through actions and not words. Shark reached down and covered her up some more before he went to lie down for what little sleep he could get.
The next morning Shark awoke to the smell of bacon and by the time he rolled himself out of bed, coffee and French toast had been added. He walked out into the cooking room (you couldn't really call it a kitchen as it was missing most of the major appliances) and saw Spydr cooking up breakfast over a small set of camping equipment. To her side, there were three plates filled with French toast and another stacked with bacon.
"What inspired this?" he asked, quite amused.
"Don't you know that today is National I've Had Enough Of Eating Rations and Wanted Something Else For a Change Day?" she replied with her best innocent look. Had he not known her for as long as he had, Shark probably would have been affected a lot more than he already was.
"I guess I forgot. Well, since we can't let this holiday go to waste I'll take six pieces of toast and three pieces of bacon."
"That's the spirit!" she beamed, handing him his order. She then shut off the camp stove and helped herself to some food as well. They ate quietly for a while before he decided to speak up.
"I'm glad you came with. I think you've been as valuable a teacher to me as I have been to you. I might not appreciate the way you went about it but I've gotten both of your points." Shark swallowed down some coffee before continuing. "I would've gotten the picture if you had just come out and said what was on your mind though"
She looked at him curiously for a while before she answered. Shark hated it when she looked at him like that. It meant she was most likely going to say something patronizing. "No, I don't think so. Now please understand that I love you dearly and mean no disrespect by what I say to you now but you never take things as a matter of fact. If I went up to you and told you the sun was out, you would look for yourself. You require proof before you accept most things and this was the easiest way to get my points across to you. I made a living out of studying people and how they react to certain criteria. You, my dear Shark, need solid proof before you fully accept anything. It's something I've come to learn through observation and through talking to your sister."
"My sister? When did you see her?" Shark tried his damnedest to keep himself from being too surprised. It wasn't too difficult. He should have known that someone as deep into the underworld as Spydr was would eventually bump into Terry.
"About a week before the Gen Tech incident. It was actually quite amusing. I caught her trying to steal one of my motorcycles, the YS-345 Jet LTD. I had just brought it home from the paint shop when I noticed that it was being watched. I took a round about way home just to make certain. You would be proud of her Shark! She did an amazing job of shadowing me. I doubt that if it had been anyone else she would have been caught. I drove it home and melted into a corner to see what would happen. A few minutes later she walked into the garage and started to scan my bike for security. I was impressed how quickly she disabled the alarms. I decided at that point to stop her and walked out of the corner. She jumped about ten feet into the air when she finally saw me. She looked like she wanted to run but my knack for stopping people dead in their tracks with a look must have kicked in. We started talking and eventually we went up to my apartment to have a few drinks. She's really a great person. We got on the subject of you and how stubborn you can be and she told me of a few examples where she had to "adjust the tint for Clint" I believe she called it. Anyway, she asked me not to tell you I ran into her for a couple of weeks. I said I would as long as she wasn't in any trouble and she promised not to steal my motorcycle."
Shark just stared at her for a while. "Are you sure she was okay?"
"I knew you would ask that. Yes I'm sure. I made her promise me that everything was alright and I didn't detect any deceit in her voice."
A sense of peace fell over Shark for a moment. He had been so busy with so many other things that he never gave much thought to family. It was good to hear that one of them was doing well. "Small world," he muttered.
"It feels that way sometimes. Let's just hope it stays that way. If it does, we should have Zona back in no time!" Spydr gave him one of her warmest smiles. He couldn't help but smile back. Even if she was being ridiculously optimistic.
The training after breakfast was once again guns. Shark was beginning to see great improvement in Spydr’s accuracy and recoil management. Her physical strength had improved quite a bit over the past few weeks and she was slowly becoming able to handle heavier and more powerful weapons. She wasn’t cleaning them as much as he would like her too, but didn’t gripe as long as they kept working. About noon he let her take a break, which she seemed very happy about. She hopped off to her room and returned a few minutes later with her ‘Acquisitions Kit’ as she like to call it. “I’ll be back in a few, Sharky,” she smiled. “I noticed that the pub up the road has an authentic early twentieth century potato peeler that I think wants me to own it.”
Shark’s jaw dropped in utter shock/amusement. “Let me get this straight. Spydr, one of the, if not THE best, acquisitions specialists in all of Northopolis, perhaps even other areas too, is going up to Mickie’s Brawl Pit and Pub to steal, of all things, a potato peeler?” Spydr just smiled and gave him a hug on her way by. Shark laughed to himself on the inside as he watched her leave. His chuckling was interrupted by Alphabet.
“Shall I?”
“Not necessary,” replied Shark. “Not only do I have great faith in her ability to steal a kitchen utensil from a run down pub, if anything should go wrong Boomerang is up there now in the brawl pits. I am sure he can keep her safe from the sheeple up there if anything were to go wrong.” Alphabet nodded in understanding and went back to lifting his iron.
Shark had spent the last few hours pouring over the schematics Spydr had graphed out for him of the O’Reardon Safety and Insurance Inc. building’s ventilation system. Shark knew them to be a front for Mars Inc. and as such they could be a small issue when things were about the heat up in North Ireland. Spydr had come up with a fairly good plan to immobilize them except for the small fact that it would involve the assistance from Shark’s favorite corporation on the planet, GenTech. In the end, Spydr had convinced him that it was the best non-lethal way to take Mars Jr. out of the picture. Shark glanced from the schematics to the part of the plan that worried him on many levels, the six small metal devices that disguised themselves nicely as salt and peppershakers. Spydr had told him that Jio called them Viral Dispensers. Not necessarily a clever name but their purpose was not in question when you learned what they were called. One more point for GenTech in the Names That Inspire Fear category Shark thought to himself. He reached over and picked one of the devices up off of the table. Gripping the thinner top with his right had gave the bottom a fast, hard twist with his left. The bottom popped off, which he set gently on the table. He then held the top above his head and gazed into it for what seemed like the one-hundredth time. Hanging in the top was a glass orb that was as big around as a casing of a garden-variety shotgun shell. Inside the glass orb was a purple liquid. The glass orb was connected to the top of the device with a very small fiberglass tube, inside of which was a small charged fuse. When the fuse was charged with a remote signal, which was sitting on the table a few feet away, the glass orb dropped into the bottom. The same remote detonated another small charge underneath the metal pan sitting in the bottom part of the device, heating the metal pan to a temperature that could turn the purple liquid into a gaseous mini virus when the small, fragile orb dropped down onto it and shattered. The virus itself was not deadly. It’s purpose was to confuse the brain into thinking it was sending too many signals to the muscles and slow them down a tiny bit. The end result was a five-hour bout of lethargy, which would in turn make Mars Jr. a little more than apathetic to the distress calls they would receive. They would still have to deal with what any out of office employees threw at them but having a large chunk out of the way would help tremendously. Shark put the device back together and set it with the other five and turned back to the schematics when he heard the front door open up followed shortly by the thud of a large individual on the ground.
Shark immediately pulled out his Predator and readied it to kill whomever was intruding, if it was indeed an intruder. Shark slowly stood up and made quiet but fast steps to the wall. He braced himself against the wall and looked into the reflection of the metal doors of the refrigerator, which conveniently had a nice view of a good portion of the front outside of the house, depending on where you stood. The reflection on the very bottom of the lower door revealed Boomerang on the ground, dressing a wound to his leg and wincing in pain. Shark beeped his internal communicator and waited for the reply.
“Dude?” grunted Boomerang
“You alone or you have a tail?”
“I am totally tailed bro, but only by one. It was two but one of the gimps has a third eye now courtesy of me, myself and I if you carry my baggage man?”
Shark smiled. “Copy. Where is the second?”
“Last I saw he was heading for a wipeout by sneaking around back. I’d check out the sexy girly girls room.”
“Why Spydr’s room?
“I’ll explain in a bit, dude. Just get going quick.”
“Roger.” Shark cut the comm and crouched down, again taking large yet quiet steps, which was much easier once he hit the carpeted hall leading to the three rooms on the other side of the house. Pausing only to crank up the amplification on his ears he moved to the room at the end of the hall. He arrived just in time for when he got to the door he heard the window being broken. Shark waited for the sounds of the intruder trying to get through the window and then threw the door open and launched at the man halfway through the window and smacked him on the back of the neck very roughly with his Predator. The man went limp instantly, dropping his gun on the ground. Shark grabbed him and pulled him through the window with one fast jerk and dragged him into the living room. “You gonna be alright?” he asked Boomerang, who had managed to get into the kitchen and was beginning to clean out his wound.
“No worries, dude,” he replied back.
“Good. Where is Spydr?”
“Was just about to relay the info to ya. Pass me your lighter, mine got washed out in the water dude.”
Shark would have rolled his eyes if he had any, but tossed Boomerang his lighter. Boomerang caught it and started heating up his knife with the flame. While watching the blade heat up he spoke. “I didn’t see what went down at first. I was walking out of the pisser when I saw Girly Girl walk in. She smiled and waved and I gave her a full on ‘Dude!’ and began to walk over to see what was up. She told me she was here to compete in the pits at first and I laughed my ass off. Girly Girl can tell a good one when she has to. Anyways bro, she pulled out this totally whacked potato peeler and said she came to pick up her door prize. I just chalked it up to another crazy thing she likes to do and we chatted about how she is totally missing out on the whole ocean motion action every night she decides not to sleep with me. In the end she like floored me when she told me she wasn’t ready for the serious power I controlled in bed so I let it drop.” Boomerang ceased his retelling for a few to wince as he placed the now very hot knife against the wound. Shark was now standing in the kitchen, having secured his new captive quite well. After a few more seconds, Boomerang continued.
“We were having a couple brewskies, well, I was anyway. Girly Girl must have still been on the clock because she wasn’t imbuing at all. The next thing I knew, this huge black motherfucker landed like a killer wave on our table and decided to play I Wish I Was a Ninja with yours truly. He was all like ‘whuppaaaaaa’, well he didn’t actually SAY that but it was so written on his face!” Boomerang flashed Shark a grin, who did not return it.
“Get to the point, Boomerang. The longer you embellish your tale, the further she gets from us.”
“Oh yea…sorry boss,” he mumbled quickly, lowering his gaze. “Well, he kicked me square in the chest and I totally wiped out and flew into the side of the cage. Before I hit the chain links though, he had already turned and landed a fist square on Spydr’s jaw. She crumpled and fell into his arms. He hoisted her up and leapt fifteen feet to the entrance and kicked the door open. That’s the last I saw of him but my hands got full in a big hurry cause five goon types decided to play Let Boomerang Empty Some Shells Into Me, Please. It was a short game but they won. They tried to cheat by using the other patrons that were fleeing for their lives as shields but I totally had my No Cheat code entered! So I ran outside and saw King Kong slam the hatch of a MAMVEE and walk towards the driver door. I snapped up my lil baby and squeezed off three fast shots. This next part freaked me out. I saw all three sink into his torso and come out the other side. His only response was the fast drawing of Sovteck Bear-C and spray the side of the pub with hole colored paint. He then jumped into the ATV and peeled out of there. I fired of the four obligatory shots as he fled and then high tailed it back here. I was so stupid, dude. I didn’t look the best I could to see if I was being followed. Fortunately, they wanted me dead and even more fortunately they have poor aims because they totally missed anything vital when I got shot in the leg. I spotted one with no prob and aced him. The other one ran off before I could get a good shot but I was pretty sure he was coming here.” Boomerang rolled his eyes to the right, which he usually did to see if he left anything out. He must have been satisfied because he just gave a Shark a quick nod and a grin.
“As much as I’d like to reprimand you for being sloppy about being followed, it may have turned out for the better. In the other room may be our only clue to where our friend is.” With that, Shark turned and moved into the living room, eager to learn more.
Inconveniently enough, the rain had begun to pour down with much greater force over the last few hours. A normal person wouldn’t be able to drive in it at all and Shark wasn’t sure he was fairing well himself. Perhaps it was the fact that he was pushing over 140 kilometers per hour on an empty and water logged highway that caused the potential danger but he thought little of it right now. He glanced at the rear view mirror quickly but couldn’t see anything behind him other than Alphabet and Boomerang checking their weapons and gear. He had told them to gear up for a heavy three-man evac team and they had done just that. They were armed better than most minor corporation security teams at the moment and if his gut were anything to go by, they would need every bullet before the night was over. Shark had been unable to get any information from the goon who tried to steal Spydr’s data disks from her laptop. The goon didn’t know why he was to take them or even where to bring them yet as he was to await a call that would inform him of the drop spot. Shark was more than happy to sit and await the call but the only thing that happened was for the back of the goon’s head to bust open from a small explosion at the appointed time of the call. Not even ten seconds later Shark’s cell phone rang. The voice on the other end was Spydr’s and he didn’t like how it sounded one bit. Her only words had been ’31 Bromingthill, building seven’ after which she hung up. It took him less than a minute to get the location on a map and then even less to get it in his head. Five minutes later, the three were in his truck and on the way to the old lumberyard.
“How much time until we get there?” asked Alphabet.
“Barring any unforeseen problems, about ten minutes,” Shark answered.
Alphabet only nodded in response and slid his twin S&W 6000s into place.
Once the destination was in sight, Shark knew immediately which building was designated as Number Seven. Hovering above the roof was a very sleek air transport, with a repelling rope coming out from the bottom side that disappeared into the building. Having let Alphabet out 300 yards back, he stopped the truck and awaited his recon report. Boomerang passed the time by eating some apples. Shark was in no mood to do anything but impatiently wait. After doing so for about twenty hour-long minutes, he was contacted by Alphabet.
“Spies set up and recon report uploading in fifteen seconds.”
Shark flipped open the laptop and waited for the images to transfer. He cycled through them one by one, studying them intently. “I count a total of thirteen visible tangos, copy?”
“I did as well. Thermal imaging suggests around five inside the building and a friendly in the center, approximately thirty feet off of the ground, most likely at the end of the repelling rope connected to the Hover Jet. I am transferring that image to you now.”
After looking at the image Shark responded. “Until one of us can verify it with our own eyes, the person hanging inside will be presumed dangerous as well.”
“Understood. Where should I meet you?”
“I am about fifty yards from the gate, north by north east. Make your way here.”
“Copy that,” was the reply before the transmission was cut.
Shark turned back towards the laptop and cycled through the cameras again only to notice the tangos walking away from their posts and moving into one of the buildings. By the time Alphabet got back to the truck, two troop movers and rolled out of the building and left the premises with the thirteen tangos inside. Shark didn’t like it one bit. He watched carefully as Alphabet came into view and came up to the back of the truck. He opened the door and leapt into the back. “And then there were five” he muttered as he checked his weapons.
“Right,” grumbled Shark.
“Those dudes are like sooooo stupid. Or overconfident.” Boomerang grinned.
“Or up to something else…” sighed Shark. “We don’t have time to wait though. If that is Spydr, we need to get her soon. Let’s do this.” With that, he threw open the door, pulled out his Predator, and with Boomerang and Alphabet at his back, moved carefully towards building number seven.
The journey to the side entrance was way to easy, and that only made Shark that much more weary. He turned up his hearing to catch any noise on the other side while he waited for the other two to get into position. All he was able to pick up was the unmistakable hum of the Hover Jet above him. A few seconds later, he was contacted by Boomerang and Alphabet; informing him they were in position. “On three,” Shark informed them. Three seconds later, they all burst into the building.
