Episode 6: Dead Run

Legacy of Spies
Episode 6: Dead Run

by Toni Walker

The water was black ink. He couldn't see a hand in front of his face much less where Theresa had been enveloped by its murky depths. Raphael dove down using his senses to feel where Theresa had gone much the way a bat would as it flew through a cave using sonar. As he burst through the surface, his strangled breathing was the only sound other than the rushing water that pulled him farther downstream.


Rafe screamed Theresa's name over and over. He guessed she must have blacked out as soon as she hit the icy water. She wasn't responding. That wasn't a good sign. A shiver went down his spine. If he didn't find her in the next few minutes, he didn't know what would become of her.


At a bend in the river the water slowed allowing him to grab the bank and heave himself out of the inky blackness. It was then he saw her. Theresa's body was thrown over a boulder jutting out of the water and she was holding onto it for dear life.


"I'm coming," Raphael yelled. He vaulted over fallen brush and large roots trying to make his way to her. "Hold on! Don't let go!"


"I don't plan on it," she whispered, hoarsely.


Her voice was raspy but at least she was alive. Raphael leaped and parried making his way through the zig-zag of debris on the river bank. Finally, he came upon her. She was only an arms length away. His heart was beating so fast he didn't know if it was in his chest or in his head. His breathing was rough and rapid as he leaned out over a fallen tree limb to get to her.


"Grab my hand." Raphael stretched his fingers out and they brushed against hers lightly. Her touch was soft but persistent as she shifted her position in order to clasp his hand.


The limb Rafe laid across for support began to give way. He only had a few seconds to save Theresa from the water threatening to pull her further under.


"Hurry." she said, calmly. "I'm slipping."


The tone in her voice was strange considering she was hanging on for dear life. It was calm compared to the scream and fuss he had been expecting. "Almost there."


Her long fingers tip-toed up his arm and latched onto his wrist. Somehow she knew there was a better grip on the wrist than the hand. At least common sense hadn't evaded her during her dip in the Mississippi.


He pulled her to his chest and sat up. Their hearts both racing. But the danger wasn't over. The tree limb couldn't support their combined weight and began teetering. Rafe stood straight up, threw Theresa over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and scrambled down the long fallen tree. The base of the tree connected to the river bank and he carefully laid Theresa down on the grassy area opposite its large trunk.


"Are you all right?" he said, his breath heaving heavily. He checked her for injuries but found only a slight scrape on her shoulder and a larger gash across her cheek. But that was the least of his worries. Her face was pale. Too pale. She seemed on the verge of passing out. As she swooned, he grabbed her shoulders.


"I have to get you to a hospital."


She clutched onto his wrist again and pulled herself close to his face and whispered, "No hospitals. Promise me." Then in a stronger voice stressed again, "Promise me!"


He didn't know why but he agreed to her demands. "No hospitals. But we have to get you out of these wet clothes and somewhere warm."


She nodded in agreement before completely scumming to sleep. Like a worried parent, he checked her head again, making sure she didn't have a concussion. If she did, he would make a point of keeping her awake, but when he found no bruises or abrasions, he let her drift off.


As she slept on the hard ground next to the bank of the Mississippi River, Raphael could only stare at her. She was beautiful. He had never known a woman to be so lovely even wet to the bone. Something radiated out of her that hit him straight between the eyes.


After the mess with his former wife, he promised himself that he'd never get involved with another woman again. But this woman lying next to him made him want to break that promise to himself. Just looking at her made him hard and needy. He shifted uncomfortably as his need of her strengthened, straining his jeans.


But he knew that in reality, he could never have her. She was too good for a thief like him.
What had possessed him to save her, he wondered? He was a thief not a rescue ranger. Maybe it was her captivating beauty, but he doubted it. Somehow it always came down to this one issue. He was a thief. And being a thief was the blackest stain you could have on a relationship résumé. He was a bad influence on his children. He was bad for his mother, so why wouldn't he be bad for a beautiful woman like Theresa Shea?


Being an outlaw had been a reckless whim he satisfied in his youth, but that whim had haunted him for years. He was a legend after only this third job. The Angel of the Night, as the press had deemed him. He was the handsome rogue thief. A cameraman had caught his image briefly once in the darkness of midnight. The photo had been grainy and showed only a shadow of his face, but not knowing who he really was didn't hamper the mystery surrounding his breaking and entering mystique. He only went for the richest heists. His forte was stealing high priced jewels with intricate alarm systems.


The press either loved or hated him. On one hand he was cool, mysterious and daring and on the other he was the worst of the bad. For years he had asked himself why he did it. For the glory? For the thrill? No. None of these things. He'd done it for the money. Plain and simple. He needed it for his son Angel. For doctors and speech therapists. People like that didn't come cheap. So after awhile that was how he justified his outlaw nature. He had to support his family and thievery was the only thing he was good at.


The night grew colder and Rafe shivered. He had to get Theresa out of there and somewhere warm for the night. As he gazed around, the only structure for miles was an abandoned cabin. It wasn't much. But it was shelter and it had to be enough.


Raphael scooped her into his arms and began the long trek to the cabin which by his estimate seemed at least a mile away. Theresa would make it till morning he would make sure of that. Then tomorrow he would leave her at the hospital and tend to his own missing children.

***

Evie Raines looked at the emblem tattooed on the man's skin and tried very hard not to scream. This was bad. Very bad. Bad as in not good. The car had to be going at least 50 miles an hour not to mention the fact that Tony was nearly comatose because of his damn father.


Why had she ever said yes to Paul Thomas? Was she insane? Teenagers were not supposed to be spies traveling around the world trying to save it. Maybe it had to do with prison and her own dead beat father and serving time behind bars that scared her into staying on the straight and narrow despite her poverty.


And today the straight and narrow was telling her to try and save both their lives.


The prospect of jumping out of a car that was going faster than the speed limit was not something she wanted to dwell one. The fall alone might kill them both, but dying like this was better than dying by lethal gun wound to the forehead.


On three, she told herself. One. Okay, this was really crazy but the only way, right? Two. If there was a God in heaven he'd help her find another way. Three.


She pushed at the door but it wouldn't budge. They were trapped!

***

Paul Thomas stared at the report in front of him. He couldn't believe what he was reading. He had to make certain these findings were correct.


He screamed for his secretary through the intercom. "Get me the Legacy infirmary immediately!"


Instead of answering on the intercom, Melanie sauntered through the door. Saunter was the only word for the seductive thing her body was doing. Her blond chin length hair swayed as she giggled.


"I think my psychic powers are rubbing off on you. The infirmary just called. Line three." She absently smacked her chewing gum and wound it around her finger as she talked.


"What did they want?"


"Something about Theresa Shea's body. It's missing, I think." Melanie was not known for her ability to take cohesive phone messages.


"You think?" Paul snatched the receiver up and connected the call himself. "Thomas here."


The doctor related the mysterious disappearance of the agent's body. Then Paul asked her about any other strange findings she might have come across that might help in their investigation.
"What about this report you sent to my office. This could explain why she's not there."


The doctor agreed with Paul's assessment. Then she related a fact he didn't know. "The patient appeared to be allergic to the tranquilizer used in the bullets. That alone could have caused her to flat line. She must be quite a fighter for her to come back to life like that."


"Tranquilizer? And what do you mean, come back to life?" Paul wanted to continue the conversation when Darien Wolfe appeared in his office. Melanie looked sheepish about letting him get though the door without buzzing him in first.


"I'll call you back, doctor." He hung up the phone and Wolfe approached. "It's okay, Melanie. I'll see Mr. Wolfe."


Melanie hung her blond head and left knowing she had failed to do her job once more.
The black man lost no time in waiting for the office door to close after the secretary's departure.


"The doctor is right. Theresa is alive." Darien paced in front of his director's desk. "I saw her myself. But I think there might be someone after her. I saw him dive in the Mississippi after she fell in. I've sent my team into investigate."


"Good, good," Paul said. "Someone only wanted it to look like she was dead. Why?"


"That's a very good question, sir."

***

London was displaying its usual murkiness as the fog settled in for the evening. Nigel Bennett didn't seem to notice the weather but Raven wondered exactly what it would do to her hair. Her hair and humidity did not exactly mix well.


"Where are we going?" Raven Martinez asked Nigel as they ran down one alley after another.
Nigel mumbled an answer but she didn't quite catch what he said. It sounded like the Ivory Tower, but she couldn't be sure. Before long they hailed a cab that drove them over the vast countryside leaving them outside an estate miles from Athens.


"Where are we?" she thought to ask. But thus far none of her questions had been answered.


"My, you are an inquisitive girl, aren't you?" Nigel said in his distinguished English accent.


He smiled and helped her up and onto one of the brick pillars adjoining the fence sections surrounding the estate. He led her to an opening at the base of the wall. The brick appeared solid, but wasn't. A moment later they were standing on the opposite side of the wall. Raven marveled at what they had just done.


"Whoa, very James Bond," Raven said, obviously impressed, but concerned about how this was going to help her find her brother before Snake Lady did something to hurt him.

Nigel pushed a clump of brown hair out of his face and smiled another thousand kilowatt smile.
"You haven't seen anything yet," he said with a mix of confidence and sheepishness.

***

The dark sedan-like cab slowed and then stopped in a residential neighborhood where streetlights were nonexistent. At least they were stopped. She wouldn't kill herself trying to escape now. Then she eyed the gun in the tattooed man's hand. Okay, maybe she still would get herself killed.


Evie wanted to kick herself. How had she gotten into such a quandary?


This was supposed to be a secret spy mission, wasn't it? But there was the chance that the enemy had already hacked a hole into the computer's encryption code. The blond hair stuck to the back of her neck showing her signs of low grade fear. She looked at the man in the front seat. With his blue-eyed gaze and daredevil looks, she knew this man was a force to be reckoned with. He had the initials BC tattooed on his wrist which Paul Thomas said was the sure sign of a Black Council minion.


He wasn't exactly what she'd call scary looking. In fact, she wondered why she hadn't noticed his good looks before. No, not scary looking at all. He was more in the oh-my-god-I-have-to-tell-my-girlfriends-about-him department. His blond hair was a little ragged. His teeth looked amazingly perfect, and those eyes! They were so blue they...


What was she doing? Mooning over a guy who was probably dispatched to kill her!


"Why does this always happen to me?" she whined. "I couldn't have picked the next cab? NO! I had to pick the one with the man chomping at the bit to kill me!"


The man in the front seat eyed her and continued to point the gun at her. "End of the line, sweetheart," he said in way too sexy tone.


God, she really was losing her mind. Now she was thinking he was sexy!


She looked over at her foster brother. Poor Tony. He was still in shock over witnessing his father's betrayal of his mother. But sooner or later he had to learn that the only person in this world you can really count on is yourself. But who knew his daddy would be such a big, bad Wolfe?


Evie looked back at the baddie in the front seat. Tony was in no way ready to take on the likes of a killer hefting a very nasty gun. That meant only one thing. She had to distract Mr. Blue Eyes. Get him away from the car so Tony could escape.


She'd already bungled her one and only spy mission. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory.
The killer with the tattoo eyed her warily. And darn those blue eyes of his! She could feel herself getting all squishy and emotional inside every time they made eye contact.


God! This had to stop! He was a bad guy, not a potential romantic relationship. She had to remember that even if her teen hormones were stacking the deck against her. But that didn't stop her mind from screaming for her to bat her eyelashes instead of batting her fists.


She tried the door handle once more. Still locked. Shoot, that called for more drastic action.
To save both their lives, Evie did the only thing she could think of considering she had no weapons. She lunged forward snaking into the front seat next to the blond baddie and kicked the rugged, pretty boy in the chest. His resounding "oof" was music to her ears.


While he was recovering from the blow, Evie hit the automatic door locks releasing her from her automotive prison and raced off into the dark streets of Athens. A sound of a slamming door made her aware that Blue Eyes was hot on her heels.
***
Mackenzie Gray's eyes thinned as he scanned the land below the helicopter. They had been searching for hours. Over the next rise, Mac saw a twinkling of light. The light winked at him just for a moment, but it was enough to get a fix on where the location the light was emanating. He cautioned Stone Jacobs to fly lower and keep a watch on his side of the aircraft.


Within minutes they found both Jack and Nikki alive and intact. When they landed on the deserted island, Mac knew what he had to do. He couldn't go and meet the head of the Knights Foundation. Not when national and world security were threatened.


The minute Stone Jacobs lifted the helicopter off the ground without him and Nikki inside the cockpit, Mac knew something was up. Paul Thomas must have put a bug in Stone's ear because Mac was sure Jacobs wouldn't have considered such an asinine plan himself.


Stone attempted to try and strand Mac and Nikki on the island alone together but Mac would have none of it. Leaving them stranded would definitely not have been good for world peace. He was an operative not a man right now. It didn't matter that Paul and Stone both wanted Mac and Nikki romantically involved. Right now that was not going to happen.


To say the least, Mackenzie Gray was not a happy man.


What did they think he was? An inhuman machine? Theresa Shea, his almost-fiancee wasn't even cold in the ground, yet his friends had decided it was well past time for him to move on.
He wasn't sure if he ever could.


Back at the hotel in Athens, Mac and Nikki searched for clues. Nigel was no where to be found and Teryl, who had previously checked in under her own name was now gone.


"According to Paul, the Immortal computer's database is secure again. Whomever was hacking in suddenly stopped." Nikki's fingers flew across her computer keyboard.


"Thank God for small favors. But the mission still stands. Take out Angel. Save the world." Mackenzie's expression was hard and callous, unlike anything she had seen before. "Stay here," he said fitting a gun into his holster. "I'll be back."


"The hell you will. I'm coming with you!" Nikki would not stand for this macho bull crap.


Mackenzie's gaze was filled with anger. His eyes were two piercing pin points that seemed to slash into her soul. She watched as he reached into Nigel's backpack and withdrew something. Seconds later she found herself handcuffed to the bed.
"Dammit! You are not doing this to me?!!"


Mac's face held no emotion. "Sorry, honey, I already have."


As he left, he could hear Nikki's screaming shrieks behind him.

---

Next Time....

As Raphael and Theresa begin to make love, one isn't sure who the other partner truly is!

Teryl, the Huntress, meets up with Nigel and Raven.

Evie flees from the Black Council minion, only to be overcome, in more ways than one.