CHAPTER 11

"It could have been worse. I mean they......" Harry had stopped listening to Lucy after the first sentence, he knew it was already worse, she didn't just know it yet. He had planned with Joshua to catch the killers by using Eve as bait, by now they would already be getting ready to storm the green cottage but if they heard that Eve was getting moved again they would reconsider believing she might have divulged some information that would compromise their mission and then decide on an ultimatum to get her first before finishing the mission. It wasn't a full proof plan but he was sure it would work if and only if Joshua made it known to all the agents that she was getting transferred, he was suspecting that there was a snitch among the agents.

"Well, find anything?" Harry asked an agent who had been scanning for finger prints.

"Nothing, the whole place is clean" he replied.

"Joshua told me to ask you if this would cause any change in plan?" Lucy whispered slowly.

Harry knew he couldn't afford to waste time, the more time he wasted the more information they got "and besides what was the odd that it was them who broke in", he assured himself.

"No, we push on as planned" he replied.

Lucy was about to say something when she heard

"Yo, Mr. Fisher" she turned to see Ralph standing by the door, he was being held back by an agent who stood there watching the streets.

"Let him in" yelled Harry.

"Yo, what happened? I heard you got robbed" he asked as he approached Harry.

"You didn't come here to get a story, did you?" Harry asked.

"You know how it is. Everyone wants to know what's happening on the streets especially if its a law enforcement officer getting robbed" Ralph replied; he was wearing blue jeans and a dark T-shirt with the word "seen" on it. He had a digital camera hanging round his neck.

"You'd better not...."

"Who's your friend?" Lucy cut in before Harry could finish.

"This is Ralph, he works for the...." He turned and saw Ralph about to take a photo and he quickly grabbed hold of the camera and took it off his neck.

"Hey that's mine!" Ralph said.

"Not in here it's not.....and if you want to keep it in good shape you'd better disappear right now" Harry said and stretched forward his camera back to him.

"Whatever, man" he quickly grabbed his camera and was about to leave. Lucy stood chuckling at the event.

"Nice friend, you've got" she said.

"Yo, Mr Fisher can I still come back later to get more info about the rich guy?" Ralph asked from the door

"No, now leave!" Harry yelled.

"Didn't know you liked kids?" Lucy said with a grin on her face.

Harry looked coldly at her

"Am thinking you and your friends have over stayed your welcome" he said, pointing at the two agents.

"So what are we going to do about your missing report books?" she asked with a more serious voice.

"If Joshua ever asks you what you think might be in it, tell him you don't know" Harry said.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because the less everyone else knows, the better"

Lucy whistled and made a gesture to the other two agents to leave.

"I don't get this plan.." she said

"...why do we have to move her and why is Joshua having a meeting concerning this with all the agents?"

"Someone is giving the killers information on our every move." Harry said.

"Who? Eddy?" Lucy asked

"I never said that" Harry replied.

"Then how do you know?"

"Your friend who killed one of our suspects, she claimed she was Mrs. Mai but that wasn't what made you believed her. No, rather it was because prior to that day you had already read a report about Mr. Mai that had her picture in it as his wife. The question now is how were they able to change backed up data from the archives?" Harry asked.

"They must have had someone working for them at the archives" Lucy replied.

"Had?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, remember that robbery at the archives the other day? Well the gunman killed two workers before we arrived, my guess is they were cleaning their tracks" she said.

"Or maybe that's what they want you to think....if there's one thing I have learn about this job is that every case is personal"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you find out what files were stolen?"

"No, not yet....wait who told you about that?"

"Doesn't matter now, does it?" Harry asked.

"It kind of does..." Lucy said.

"...wait hold on.." she stuttered.

"Are you suspecting the robbery having to do anything with your recent visits to the archives"

"You know I went back there?"

"I know you are always there whenever you can't be found, you are not the only one who has got people in the city"

Harry sighed and turn to see if the agents waiting by the door where listening in on what they were saying. He saw them having a talk with a passerby on the road.

"What did you think was that man's true intention?" Harry asked.

"I can't say yet but whatever it is, am guessing it was successful"

"Did you...." Harry turned back at the door and saw that the passerby was now leaving and they were talking with another.

"Did you by any chance see Scarface down at the docks, yesterday?"

"Yes, he was waiting for a comrade of theirs"

"And he told you that?"

"Yes...why? What have they got to do with any of this?" Lucy asked.

"Where else does one get a grenade?"

"You are not saying that the attack was orchestrated by enforcers, are you?" Lucy said with an expression of shock.

Harry looked at her face and back at his front door.

"No, that would be stupid...come on let's go" he said, he straightened his bag as he began walking towards the front door.

There was a black van outside. As they approached it, the sliding door swung open, sitting in it was the agent who was sweeping Harry's house some moments ago and two others. As Harry and Lucy took a seat one of the agents hit the walls of the van twice with his right hand and the engine kicked started and they drove off.

Moments later they had stopped moving, Harry got up and swung open the door; they were now staring at the gates of the Bean's warehouse. Unlike their first visit there the gates were wide open, Harry stepped out of the van and the rest followed. As they drew closer to the gates they heard a voice yelled

"That's far enough!"

They stopped as soon as they heard the voice, the door slowly pushed opened and Eve was seen walking up to them; she had cuffs on her arms and feet which slowed her down. Harry tried to see who pushed her out the door but he couldn't as the person remained in the darkness of the warehouse within. Harry waited till they had all boarded the van before he turned his back on the warehouse. As the doors closed he turned to have one last look at the warehouse again.

"Yes sir.....we're on our way towards the drop zone" Lucy was on the communicator with Joshua, Harry was busy with a map trying to find out where they were.

"Hey, why are we slowing down?!" Harry yelled when he noticed the lack of speed.

"We've reached the second checkpoint, I had to slow down for the other driver to take the lead!" the driver yelled back; it was a common tactic for van carrying criminals or money to leave its point of pickup alone and pass through spots at which two cars with armed personnel will join them, one being in front and the other behind. This way before any one could know it was carrying something important it would already be on the move and it would be secured. The drivers never stopped, not even if they had a flat tyre they would keep driving till they get to their destination or till they get killed.

Harry was busy searching out where they were now, after hearing what the driver said. He hadn't yet gotten familiar with this part of the district so he kept a look out for any wrong turn on his map.

Eve sat still, she didn't speak; she sat in the midst of the two agents while Lucy and Harry sat opposite her.

Harry saw they were only 4 blocks from the drop zone, a grin drew on his face.

He looked at Eve who was now staring at him

"Seems your friend....." he noticed they had stopped moving.

Harry stood and tried spying where they were from the tiny opening on the van. Lucy was busy yelling at the driver.

"Why did we stop?!" She asked.

The driver was on the communicator and didn't respond until she asked the second time.

"The road is blocked...its under construction!" the driver replied. The response seemed to spark something in Eve as she quickly used her elbow to hit the agent on her right and followed it up with a punch to the one on her left. The other agent quickly rushed to restrain her as she continued her assault on her two guards, Lucy was about to rush in when Harry yelled

“Get down!"

They felt the impact as a truck ran through the front of their van, Harry used his left arm to stop his head from hitting the floor as the truck somersaulted, he heard his wrist snap but at that time it was nothing compared to the pain he was feeling as his body hit the walls of the truck. He began hearing sounds he suspected to be gunshots, after the first shot the sounds became more rampant.

Harry looked around and was trying to figure out who was still conscious; he saw Eve lying in front of her, her arms were on one of the agents and Harry guessed the agent would have probably broken his neck during the impact. Harry heard some banging on the back door then the light rushed in as the door was pulled open. A man rushed in and picked up Eve, Harry was still struggling to stay conscious when the man left with Eve. He crawled out the van and could now hear the gun shots clearly, he reached for the dagger in his purse; it was a miracle as to how the dagger didn't stab him during the accident. He looked back at the fallen van and saw Lucy also crawling out; she had blood running down the right side of her head. Harry helped pulled her out the van.

"Where's she?" Lucy asked.

Harry pointed down the road they were coming from. The two cars behind them were filled with bullet holes and dead bodies, Lucy stood up and tried looking in front, the two cars had a few agents and they were being shot at, the only thing they had were crossbows.

"Do you have a plan?" Lucy asked.

"Am working on it" Harry replied, Lucy looked at Harry she noticed his left wrist was swelling, she sighed and quickly snatched the dagger from his arm and took off in the direction that Harry earlier pointed at. Harry yelled at her to come back but she didn't listen, she limped a few times before she was able to start sprinting. She couldn't see far past all the smoke and dust but she saw the back of one man running and she followed him. He climbed up an old bakery and then jumped into a truck full of sand parked at the front of the bakery, Lucy followed without hesitation. Lucy almost landed on the man but he was quick enough to roll down the truck, Lucy continued the chase as the suspect ran and climbed down an underground passage to an old train station. Lucy gained more speed when she got to the stairs, as the man got off the last stair case she was almost at arms reach when a fist came out the right side and hit Lucy down; the attacker was leaning at the end of the wall that ended with the last stair case. Lucy landed on the concrete floor, the inside of her mouth had been ripped opened by her teeth and blood slowly dripped from her lips.

"Wow, buddy you shouldn't punch the lady that hard" one of the men said jokingly and they all burst into laughter. Lucy could hear three voices, she tried reaching for the dagger she had dropped but one of them kicked it out of arms reach.

"This one's a fighter" another said.

"What are we gonna do with her?" asked the first.

"Oh she dies alright but before that, why not we have a little fun....I don't know about you guys but I've sure as hell never tasted agent before" he slowly unbuckled his belt as the others continued laughing. Lucy saw one of them was close enough and she sent her right foot straight at his balls, as he fell down Lucy made an attempt to dive at the second only to feel the belt of the third fall on her head and it was followed by a blow to her abdomen delivered by the second. She fell back to the floor and they both started kicking her, the first one was now back up and he said

"Wait....hold on, I'm gonna kill this bitch personally" he ran back to pick the dagger he had earlier kicked. He grabbed Lucy's hair and pulled her up

"Now we are definitely gonna have some fun" he had the dagger softly pointing at the tip of her nose. They heard a scratch on the wall, they turned quickly and saw Harry standing at the stairs; he had blood stains on his white, he wasn't wearing his suit and held a dagger in his left hand while his right was hiding behind him.

"How about another option? You let her go and I'll consider not killing you all" Harry said and they started laughing.

"And how do you plan to do that?...last I check there's one of you and three of us" asked the first man.

"Not really, there's one of me and one of you three. If you die there's no guarantee your friends will live your life for you" Harry replied.

The first man charged towards Harry and before he got close enough Harry revealed his right hand and in it was a Colt Dragoon revolver, he pulled the trigger and the first man went down without a fuss, he aimed and pulled again the bullet got the second man at the right side of his head. The third man took off as quickly as he could but he wasn't quick enough as he got shot at the back. As he fell down, Harry drew closer and delivered three more shots on his chest. Lucy laid on the ground watching as Harry kept the gun in his waist bag, he then picked up his dagger and began stabbing at the holes on the dead men. He continued doing so until he was able to dig out all the bullets from their corpses and he put them in a little polythene bag and then kept them back in his bag. After he was done he walked up to Lucy and picked her up

"Don't worry you're safe now" he said as he tried supporting her to stand up but she wasn't able to and she passed out in his arms.