Chapter 8 - Hit It

This isn't good. Professional hunters are minutes away. I need a plan. I need to wake Claire up. I rush back to our room, and wake her up.

"Dad? What do you want I'm tired" Claire replied, stifling a yawn, still lost to the world from her slumber.

"Claire, we've got to go. Now. The doorman informed on us!"

"Don't overreact Dad, I'm sure it's fine"

"Kiddo, trust me, I heard the men on their way. Even if he didn't someone did. We're going."

"Fine fine."

I leave Claire to get dressed and head outside. A plan. We need a plan. I look down at my watch, it's been 5 minutes since I heard them coming. At best we've got 10 minutes. What do I do? Think.

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On approach to the building, Roth takes one quick look around, and still can't quite place what was wrong. But something didn't add up.

It was the doorman, why wouldn't the guy who called in the tip stay until they got to the hotel? And why would he leave a teenag-

That's when the other shoe drops. The car. Where's the car?

"Kort. Wait. This is a trap. The doorwoman said they parked their car next to the building."

"Yeah, so?"

"Where is it?"

"Wait. Did you say doorwoma-"

Kort can't finish his sentence because as he does, the building in front of them collapses on top of itself. Kort is the first to react. He knows his ability better than anyone, and if h uses it right he can save the men inside.

It's as if the implosion is controlled to the second, it falls in slow motion, as if to give them enough time to save the people inside.

Kort summons his metal rod, and creates an electric field underneath the falling debris, to catch anything and everything that could possibly fall. He then pulls out a second metal rod, this one however splits length ways, and creates a tall cone, that sends any debris held in place, down it's side and away from the building.

Kort, turning to Roth "Go. I got this, they can't be far"

Roth turns and starts running towards the building, and realises his mistake. That girl was too young to be working the night shift alone, she couldn't have been more than 18. The tip was from the owner of the hotel. He was the only staff member. He had made a rookie mistake.

That girl was in fact his target. The daughter of Sheerforce.

Roth circles the building and heads straight into the foyer, and unsurprisingly there's no one there. He hears some muffled voices, and heads over to the supply closet, and upon preparing his cutlass, he opens the door to see an old man bound in the corner.

"NO" Roth loses his composure for a moment and punches into the wall, which understandably scares this poor man.

"Stay here, I'll be back in a minute" Roth leaves the bound doorman in the closet, and rushes outside towards the jeeps, to call in that their target is back on the move, but the jeeps are gone. Have they taken them? No. They aren't that stupid.

Roth pulls out a device and presses the button on the side, and a holographic screen pops out of a small projector on the top. 11 red dots can be seen behind the building, they were his men and Kort, and then another red dot where he was currently stood.

There should be two more red dots. Where are his jeeps? He zooms out a bit, and sees them, they're supposedly across the road. But where? He looks up and sees them on top of the trees, or for lack of a better term, the trees are piercing the jeeps.

Roth crushes the device in his hand and throws it towards the ground. They were gone. They had tricked him. And now this wasn't just a job. It was personal.

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"Right, we've got 10 minutes kiddo, we need a plan"

"Ready when you are Dad"

"Me? I don't have a plan, it's been 7 years, I was after suggestions"

"What are you looking at me for, I don't even know what's going on"

They stop talking for a minute to regain their composure, and Matthew looks down at his watch to see that they have 8 minutes, whatever they're going to do they have to do fast.

"The car! We need to move the car. If they block it in that's it. Take the handbrake off, and start pushing it to the other side of the road, I'll deal with our informant"

"You're not going to hurt him are you?"

"What? No, just tie him up a little, we need someone to talk to them when they get here to give us a little time. Which means one of us"

I have a terrible poker face. I know Claire knows I mean her. I'm too recognisable, it would be over in an instant. All they knew about her is that she's blonde.

I break off to apprehend the traitorous doorman, so Claire can get the car to the other side of the road unseen. I reach the foyer, and something is off. He knows I'm coming. If I were in his shoes, I'd be surprised if I didn't.

The doorman isn't sat at his seat beside the front door, he must be hiding himself somewhere. I focus my hearing on just this room, and find it. A heartbeat going crazy. It has to be him.

Before I react I hear the cocking of a gun. I move as fast as possible towards the reception desk, and within 5 seconds, I've vaulted it and find myself face to face with this small scared man.

I take him to a nearby supply closet, and tie him up using some zip ties off of a nearby shelf, and hit him just hard enough to as safely as possible knock him unconscious.

I listen for the jeeps again. They must be 3 miles out by now. I rush outside towards Claire with the doorman's uniform, and usher her inside to get ready, as I rush towards the car, something unexpected happens. I hear a noise, I had only heard once before. It was Claire. Her heart was going crazy.

We don't have long, but this needs to be done. I turn and rush back to Claire. I hug her, and tell her "It's ok, you can do this, it's just a quick conversation and then you run. I'll be just across the road"

She doesn't say anything back, but I hear her heart begin to calm, as she gets inside, and settles in the doorman's seat.

I rush into our car on the opposite side of the road, and the next 5 minutes feel like agony.

Everything happens like clockwork. The jeeps pull up. Their leader gets out. I see Claire stand up and talk to the leader, she's doing so well. He leaves, and takes his men around either side of the building. I flash my lights, and Claire comes running out.

I get out of the car and run over to her. "You did good kiddo, I'm proud of you"

I send Claire to get the car started, and I run over to their cars. The quickest method I have is to just destroy them, but it's too loud, I'll need a distraction.

I sneak around the edge of the building, and see them creating an electric field around our room. Good, they don't know we're not in there yet. We still have time. I use my half recovered freeze breath to send a gut of wind towards the building weakening it, my best guess at this point is if they apply any more force to it which I'm sure they will it'll collapse in on itself.

I run back around just in time to hear a loud boom coming from the other side of the building, and I take my moment. I launch the jeeps up, piercing them with the surrounding trees, and before they have even landed, I rush over to our car, and tell Claire to "Hit it". And as quickly as we arrived. We were gone.