“How've you been boyo?”

“ Uhm, good? Never better?” I said. I'd declined a glass of beer citing my medication but I settled for lime water. It wasn't polite to let a man drink alone.

“Hmm? That so huh?” His tone was hard to place. He seemed solemn as he stared into his glass as if it held the secrets of the world.

“ Yer friend Lucas told me what happened,” he said, sipping his drink. Condensation was beading on the outside of his rocks glass as he swirled it around in contemplation; Ice balls tinkled. “ I didnae get the full story, but I heard you were in hospital and therefore couldn't make it as soon as your leave was over—”

“Ah, yeah,” I hastily wet my broken throat with a sip of the fizzing water. “ I guess I was lucky—”

“Hmm,” he grunted, placing the glass on the table between us before he steepled his hands. “They told me they did not expect you to survive…you were in a coma for one month,”

“I guess?” I replied. I assumed he was just going to make small-talk but I could barely grasp the threads of what he was getting at. Added to that, his mood was just off—

“If you don't mind me asking sir...is something the matter?”

“Er, nothing…nothing at all—” he said. “ And you know that it's okay to help for help boyo…aye?”

It was getting confusing by the moment; I don't know what Old Bentham was dancing around. I knew him to be a straightforward man.

“If it's about the job, you don't have to feel like you owe me—”

I thought I was going to be fine for a while with the money freely flowing into my account.

“See—that's where you were wrong.” Old Bentham said, scrunching his brows in seriousness. He peeked at me past hooded eyes as if he was appraising me. “You know, sometimes it takes another to recognize what kind of help you need—it's nothing to be ashamed about,”

He was just outrightly stalling; but what for I didn't know until I heard the stomping of footsteps coming down from the bars' side. Though the door was closed, I could hear heavy footfalls trying desperately to be furtive which spoke of military precision—danger. Had I been found out so soon? Did I underestimate my pursuers—no, it was just a case of good intentions paving the road to hell.

“Mister Bentham,” I reeled as if struck by a slap. It reminded me of Lucas’ blow to the face; shocking and wholly unexpected. Betrayal was something I never saw coming; not from this old man. I thought I knew people until I didn’t.

“ What did you do―what did they tell you?!”

I found myself bounding to my feet, muscles tensed.

“ Let them help yer boyo,” he said solemnly as he sipped the rest of his whisky. He was not going to tell me because I found out myself as the door behind me flew open.

I whirled around the same moment the door slammed into the wall brandishing my trenchcoat through the air. I don’t know what I expected to do with fabric but I’m glad I did because immediately after four tines of taser whizzed into the coat crackling. I whipped the trenchcoat to the side, thankful its thick wool had snagged. Though trained, the man entering never expected someone to provide a counter like that―the taser was wrested from his hands as he remained goggling. I jumped over the low backed sofa as he tried to reach for his baton and shoulder checked him before he’d fully got it out of its holster.

What I didn’t expect was for him to go flying into his accomplices in the narrow confines of the hallway. All of them had worn the obscure overalls of an electrical company. Two went down grunting as I vaulted over their tangle of limbs. To my right one of them barred the employees’ door while the order had his back to the exit which opened outside.

“ Hold it!” Guy on the left yelled.

‘Like hell!’

He was a heavyset man so there was no shoulder checking him like the first. I closed the distance as he tried to grab for me― Ducking beneath his meaty hands, I let him have the trench coat as he was briefly acquainted with gravity. Knowing that the press of fallen men would stymie the last, I ran through the exit― Only to find a truck; their undercover truck was backing into the alley and more of them were right outside and beside the truck. As soon as the exit had slammed open, they’d already moved knowing something was amiss. They had radios too!

I was still in motion when my peripheral perception took in everything at a glance. My way out was to my immediate left where a plastic dumpster and crates of spent bottles arrayed the walls. Of our trio, only Cass would have pulled out a wall-run and a flip with her eyes closed, Lu would just heave himself up the partition wall. Me? I was running, stepping past the wall of crates praying one would not budge, twist my ankle and foul my escape.

I heard my pursuers yell as my foot landed on the plastic cover; there was no time to debate whether it would hold as I leaped for the wall. I almost swallowed my tongue as I overshot , knocked my knees and flailed flipping on the other side.

I broke my fall on another plastic dumpster as two men rounded the corner tasers drawn to stun. Unfortunately, while the dumpster had broken my fall, I lost precious seconds trying to extricate myself from having landed rear first and bent the cover.I grit my teeth as I pushed through the haze of disorientation. I suppose I should have been grateful I didn’t land on my head but I stole a subtle glance at my stat bar, except for the twinges of pain rooting around my back everything was as it should have been.

“ Stay down!” “Hands where we can see them,” they ordered. I was in a disadvantageous position―outnumbered. They had their taser guns out; not actual guns but I didn't have another coat to throw. So as I slid off the dumpster, I made the ruse of complying as I crouched, one knee down, one knee parallel to my chest both hands on the pavement

“Easy does it―Theo, get the cuffs,” one of them said to their partner, before speaking into their radio, “This is extraction team Apollos we have…” the street ahead was bereft of any pedestrians. How they’d managed to clear out the area I had no idea, but they too wore the uniform of an electricals company

Their footsteps neared―I dug deep for something…anything. I pictured myself running to save Cass from another wreckage, I imagined I had only a few seconds to do it. I don’t know what came over me, but I just hoped the trigger was intense emotion or desperation; I dug for the spark I imagined nested at the very essence of my being. I choose to believe the unbelievable and grasp for the unreachable―I choose to believe in magic. My head snapped up as I felt something burn hot and cold in my solar plexus and go scouring through my nerves like molten metal.

I didn’t hear the men shout as I sensed a vast outpouring of something other. I don’t know whether they noticed, but I was trying very hard to contain something from overflowing. It was as if the very thumb of the universe was compressing my soul to bursting. I tasted metal―then I realized I could no longer feel their footfalls. They should have reached me by now, I opened my eyes―

They were still in motion but they seemed slow, almost as if time has slowed down for them,’ or I was the one who seemed to exist outside of it. Rather than gawk, I took it as providence and scrambled getting to my feet before their colleagues could show their mugs.

Unfortunately, as soon as I twitched forward everything unraveled. I suddenly felt so very tired and sore as if I’d sprinted while doing burpees, my vision wavered as sounds seemed to come back all at once. I stole a glimpse at my stat bar, and my insides knotted in dread. The blue bar was one half short of empty.

I don’t know why I even bothered to stumble to my feet as the two men were suddenly on me like it had happened. They seemed to think I was injured or the fall had done something to me as some was already calling for a medic.

The ground wobbled as I felt my knees and elbows buckle; I might have as well chinned myself on the pavement if one of them didn’t move to grab me. I felt something hot drip from my nose, and didn’t have to wipe it to see what it was. The scarlet bar at the corner of my vision was pulsing intermittently as pixel after pixel winked out…

“ Man down!…I repeat, man down!” Echoed someone close to my ears, or maybe my ears were just unnaturally acute. Darkness encroached and just, winked out―leaving the retinal afterimages of a digit added to my blue bar. At least it counted for something; I choose to think my captors were surprised that I went down smiling.

V //////////

Æ ////////// (+2 )